The Staff of Dreams
by Khadrimx
Summary: Years after Voldemort has defeated, the graduating class from that era of Hogwarts students has grown up and gone their separate ways. But now, Headmistress McGonagall is calling back the students from old days to battle against a new threat. Meet new characters, as well as old ones in this 4 part adventure against the darker arts. Co-Written with Relaen from dA
1. A Call to Arms

_ Confusion creased Harry's face as, once more, he walked the halls of his alma mater. Hogwarts hadn't changed in the twenty years since he had left it. It had been just about two decades since the darkest of evil wizards, Voldemort, had tried and failed to take over the wizarding world and damages to Europe had been heavy and extensive. Though for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, reconstruction took only a few months after the wicked man's death as all of the wizarding community gathered to restore one of the most important institutions in Europe. _

_ But now, many years later, Harry stood before the entrance to Gryffindor Tower waiting for the familiar fat lady to ask for the password to allow him entry. Instead the portrait swung open for him without question, making his skin tingle with warning and his stomach twist into knots. He crawled through the entrance and found himself in the cozy common room, one of his favorite places from his childhood. Red and gold banners covered the walls in places that weren't covered in paintings and the overstuffed armchairs near the fire looked as comfortable and inviting as they always had. Despite the large fire crackling in the fireplace, Harry shivered and goose bumps rose on his flesh as he felt a sharp pain in his forehead. _

_ "Harry! I've been calling to you for ages!" A portrait on the wall spoke, waving the young man over excitedly. As he approached he recognized the face as that of Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of the school, as the one calling him over. Harry had always thought that his founder had a proud, almost arrogant look to his features and was surprised to see him pale with worry, fear, and possibly a hint of shame. _

_ "You've been calling me?" Harry asked as he rubbed the lightning shaped scar on his forehead, willing away the pain. "What's going on?" Confusion continued to muddle Harry's thoughts. He still couldn't figure out how he'd gotten back to Hogwarts.  
Godric smiled sadly, "I am sorry Harry, but an exchange had to be made." The founder of Gryffindor house flicked his wand. Suddenly Harry found himself standing next to the Hogwarts founder in the painting as pain ripped through his head and he heard a high, menacing laugh. Forcing his eyes open he saw Lord Voldemort smiling at him through a square window into the common room. Harry pulled his wand from beneath his cloak and tried to jinx the Dark Lord, but only red sparks shot from the end. Voldemort grinned maliciously and moved towards the overstuffed chairs near the fireplace- they were no longer empty. Harry's eldest son James lay unconscious, unable to defend himself as Voldemort drew nearer. _

_ Harry tried to jump through the window back into the common room, but an invisible barrier kept him locked inside the painting and unable to save his son. "What have you done?" He yelled at Gryffindor as he pounded the gilt frame, his heart thundering in his ears. He tried every spell he could think of to set him free but his wand was useless to break whatever curse had been brought upon him. The sound of horse-hooves drew his attention as the subject of another painting entered his. Sir Cardigan dismounted his short, fat pony and fell to the ground, his armor clanking noisily as he hit. Harry was trapped in a painting. This realization hit him so hard he nearly lost his footing and fell to his knees. "It is no good, Sir Knight," the clumsy knight said as he approached Harry, "this time, he has won." Harry watched in horror as Voldemort raised his wand to his eldest son and screamed as a jet of green light shot from the end of it, knowing all too well what curse was being used._

Harry Potter woke up covered in sweat and tears. Giving little thought to his wife Ginny who lay tossing and turning in the bed beside him, he raced from their room and down the hall to the room his two sons shared. From the flickering light of a candle he saw his son's chest rise and fall as he slept soundlessly in his bed. Harry sat for a few minutes, taking in the angelic expression that only appeared when his son was asleep and let reality sink into his confused thoughts. When he was sure that his child would continue breathing in his absence, Harry checked each room in the house carefully, ending in the kitchen where the family owl was nestled warmly for the night. "Sorry Skitz," he said as he gently pet the creature's head, "I'm going to need you to make a run tonight." Writing a hurried note to his childhood friends, Ron and Hermione, Harry sent his owl off and returned to his bed, though he would find no further rest that night.

The next afternoon Harry made his way to London, fighting the chill of the wind and rain as he walked up Charring Cross Road and gazed upon the squeaky wooden sign that identified his destination: the Leaky Cauldron. Watching as people walked around the building without paying it the slightest attention, Harry continued to be amazed that the world of non-magical people, called muggles, and that of the wizards ran parallel to each other- one not knowing of the other, and the other striving to keep it that way. Being in the wizard version of muggle law enforcement as an Auror, it always astounded him the lengths muggles went through to ignore the magic around them.

Shaking the rain from his coat when he entered, Harry let his eyes adjust to the dimly lit lounge where a number of witches and wizards had made refuge from the weather. Spindly tables and chairs were scattered throughout the room and two or three fireplaces were keeping the room warm and lit, as well as sparking green and spitting out the random witch or wizard who preferred the use of the Floo Network in their travels. The Floo Network connected various fireplaces all over the world via magic for travel and communication purposes.

Weaving his way through the crowd, Harry approached the bar, "Afternoon Raymond." he said to the barkeep. Raymond was ten or fifteen years Harry's senior and his long grey beard was a testament to his age. His father, Tom, had run the bar when Harry had first come to visit the wizarding world so many years prior and Harry held a special place in his heart for the hazy bar that was a refuge and escape so often in his childhood. "Can I get three butterbeers?" Before Harry finished his sentence Raymond was digging beneath the bar and pulling out three brown bottles frosted in ice. Handing over some knuts Harry took the drinks and found a small table in the back of the room where he would await his friends. He was halfway through his butterbeer and giving serious consideration to a fire whiskey when two of his favorite people walked through the front door, arguing as always.

"I did not confund that officer!" Ron insisted, acting completely appalled at the very suggestion of doing such a thing. His red hair and freckles were just as prominent as they always were.

Hermione rolled her eyes as she folded her umbrella, "Really, Ron?" she insisted. "I just thought it was odd that you hit his car and he didn't see the need to give you a ticket." Hermione's hair was rebellious as always and she wore a stern look on her face that clearly disapproved of her husband's behavior.

Ron looked slightly shamefaced and quickly found a distraction as his eyes raked the crowd, "Oh look, there's Harry!" he said with a wave. Taking his wife's hand, Ron led Hermione through the maze of tables and travelers to where Harry sat.

The next few minutes were filled with talk of quidditch, work, and family. The dark thoughts that had plagued Harry since his dream disappeared as he and his friends spent time filling the others in on the small, meaningless details that make life worth living, but soon all news was told and the three friends sipped quietly on their drinks in comfortable silence. Finally, when Ron was noisily finishing off his drink, Hermione turned to Harry, "So what's going on, Harry?" she asked pointedly. "We don't get midnight owls for secretive meetings very often; it's almost like we're back in school sneaking into the common room!"

Harry chuckled ironically, "You're right Hermione, as always. It's funny that you bring up school…" Taking a deep breath he repeated the details of his dream, focusing mostly on his scar and how it ached. "It hasn't hurt like that since that day." He said quietly.

Ron's face was pale by the end of his friend's telling. "It certainly can't mean that…I mean, he died- we _all_ saw it!"

Harry shook his head, "I don't think that's what it means, but that was the last time it hurt, twenty years ago."

Hermione looked at Harry critically; he was sure she was going to call him crazy or insist that he had post-traumatic stress disorder or something, but instead she asked, "Did your scar hurt after you woke up?"

Harry thought about it, rubbing the mark on his head absentmindedly, "No, it didn't. I had a headache, but not from that."

"Oh, you're fine then." She said resolutely, finishing her drink. Harry looked at her quizzically and Hermione got that look of superior intelligence that he was so accustomed to, "Your scar hurt in your dream because you dreamt of Voldemort coming back. Your subconscious was reenacting what would happen if he actually returned, but that's not what's important. You said this happened at Hogwarts, didn't you?" she asked sharply not giving him time to reply to her speculations.

Harry turned her words over in his mind, comparing them to his dream and nodded to agree. Though lost in his thoughts, Harry did not miss the look exchanged by husband and wife. "I hate it when you two do that." He said with an exasperated smile. "What about Hogwarts?"

Hermione nodded and Ron played with the empty bottle in his hands, "'Mione and I, we had odd dreams last night too." He said. "That's neither here nor there, but what we thought was weird was that both of our dreams involved Hogwarts too. I dreamt that I was in the Forbidden Forest and Godric Gryffindor pulled out his sword and sent all of those daft spiders after me." He shuddered at the memory.

"Yes and mine was that Gryffindor had convinced Professor McGonagall that I was the worst Arithmancy teacher in the history of the school and had her cast me out with all of the house elves throwing pots and food at me along the way." Hermione explained, her brow furrowing in disapproval.

"Wait, you both said that Gryffindor instigated these things?" he asked keenly. "He was the one who trapped me in that painting!" He said thoughtfully. "I wonder who else is having dreams of Hogwarts founders."

"Well there's only one way to find out isn't there?" Smiling knowingly, Hermione took a sip of her drink.

"I swear, if she says something about going to the library I'm convinced I'm dreaming again." Ron teased playfully and dodged his wife as she batted at his arm as she often did.

"Oh Ron, that's not what I was going to say at all." Hermione shook her head in dismay. "I figured we should tell _someone_ about this. I was going to suggest we tell McGonagall. Really, how would the library help us with this?" Hermione referred to the former head of Gryffindor house at Hogwarts and the now headmistress of the same school. Even though Hermione was now a peer to the older and wiser witch, she couldn't break the habit of referring to her as one of her professors. "I don't think it's anything to worry about if it's just the three of us, but if anyone else is going to hear about something peculiar related to Hogwarts it would certainly be the headmistress don't you think?"

"Good thinking, Hermione." Ron patted his wife on her arm.

"As always." Harry mused over the idea of talking to the headmistress of Hogwarts. Surely she would put his mind at ease in regards to his strange dream. But something deep within Harry, something he'd like to call instinct, told him that it was something more nefarious than a bad dream.

Malicia Maena shot up straight in her bed and caught her heavy breath. Her nightmare had felt so real that she couldn't shake the fear it left lingering in her thoughts until nearly five minutes after she'd sat alert. Pushing her messy black hair out of her face she checked the time and realized she'd slept nearly half the day away. It wasn't like her to sleep through the mornings, but she'd stayed up until the late hours putting the finishing touches on her latest project. The papers and manuscripts still lay around her as proof of her efforts.

Try as she might, as she spent the next hour waking up and cleaning up the mess around the cot she'd slept in, Malicia couldn't forget the nightmare she'd had. It haunted her thoughts and distracted her enough that she nearly fell down the stairs that led into the shop she'd recently opened with a friend. Luna Lovegood was sitting at the counter at the far end of the room, reading a magazine upside down which came as no surprise to Malicia.

"Good morning Malicia." The blond girl's voice was light and seemed to float across the room. Malicia grunted in response and started to clear out the area in the office near the stairs so she could get to the fireplace. The store had only recently been opened so there was still much unpacking and decorating to be done before it was in working order. Malicia had left this task to her protégé since she'd had many other things on her mind.

Malicia had been obsessed with foreign magic, folklore, and the mysteries that faded into legend in many cultures all around the world since her youth. For years she'd traveled on her own exploring old myths and learning how other nations performed magic in different ways. Eventually she became the best known expert in her field. A few years prior she'd been approached by Luna Lovegood, a fellow enthusiast for the odd and mythical and had hired her on the spot. Since then the two had traveled the world together, published books and had their fair share of adventures.

More recently, they'd opened a store together that focused in tools for foreign magic use and books on legends and myths. They'd needed somewhere to settle down and to share the knowledge they'd obtained over the years prior. Malicia had set up the shop near the home she'd inherited when she'd turned seventeen from her deceased parents, but had chosen not to sleep in the place considering the level of cleaning that needed to be done.

"Did you not sleep well either?" Luna put down her magazine and adjusted the horn rimmed glasses she wore on her face. Some shuffling was heard in the office and then Malicia appeared once again in the doorway.

"Either?" Curiously, Malicia watched her friend at the counter.

"I had a terrible nightmare early in the night. After I awoke I couldn't find rest so I started to unpack a bit. I tried to be quiet, I hope I didn't wake you."

"No you didn't wake me. What was your nightmare? If you don't mind me asking that is…" Malicia drifted off, leaning heavily against the frame of the door. Luna approached Malicia and leaned against one of the nearby tables that had been set up to display some artifacts from the Americas used for witchcraft in the south.

"Not at all. It was quite peculiar. I'm used to having strange dreams but not nightmares so to speak. I was on the brink of proving the existence of nargles when Rowena Ravenclaw found me and disproved everything I believed in. She publically defrauded me and my father." Luna shook her head in dismay.

"Rowena?" Malicia cocked an eyebrow curiously and considered her own dream. Salazar Slytherin, the head of the house she'd been in when she'd attended Hogwarts had made an appearance as well.

"Does that ring a bell?" Luna seemed to see the recognition behind Malicia's eyes. Malicia had no idea how she did it, but Luna was the most perceptive person she'd ever met in her life, not to mention one of the most brutally honest. "Did your dream relate to Hogwarts, too?"

"I don't think I said I had a bad dream but yes, actually, Slytherin was there." Malicia nodded and felt the sting of paranoia overwhelm her. There were many different myths and legends in relation to the dream world but only a handful of them came to mind and none of them boded well for her and her friend.

"I was contacted this morning by Professor McGonagall at Hogwarts. She's on alert for all those who have had dreams involving the four founders of the school. Perhaps you should tell her about what you dreamt since you are clearly not going to tell me." Luna smiled despite her words. She felt no offense having been left out of the information but she was merely filling Malicia in.

"So this is more widespread than just us or the town?" Malicia considered the implications and her stomach turned uneasily.

"I know what you're thinking. I've been looking it up in the books and if anything jumps out at me you will be the first person I tell."

"I'm always the first person you tell, Luna." Malicia couldn't help but smile at her friend. Luna nodded her head.

"I can tell you want to go do something else, Malicia so I'll leave you to your business. I think you should let McGonagall at least know you had the dream. I can send an owl out for you if you like." Luna offered, meandering slowly through the store and back toward the front desk.

"I'll be there at the end of the week remember? I'll tell her when I arrive at the school."

"That's right, you'll be Professor Maena." Luna smiled thoughtfully. "I will find every occasion to come and visit."

"Good." Malicia watched Luna as she picked her magazine back up and continued to read. Once she was certain the peculiar girl was done speaking with her she headed back into the office and started to push piles of books and supplies out of the way of the fireplace. She sat down in the black and silver armchair that she'd purchased two of when she'd opened the shop and stared into the empty fireplace. Raising her wand, Malicia pointed it toward the kindling within the fireplace and watched the fire roar to life in front of her.

In her dream she'd been spending the summer with her childhood friend Lia, as she often did. They'd been preparing to return to Hogwarts at the beginning of autumn and when they'd gotten to the Leaky Cauldron she'd been denied entrance. Her parents, long dead, had appeared and had told her she had no magical blood in her body and that she didn't deserve to be a witch. Lia had walked past her and through the back door that would lead her to Diagon Alley. Crippled with fear at the idea of returning to a muggle life she ran past her parents and ran into none other than Salazar Slytherin. He'd told her she'd been given a chance to be a great witch and had thrown it away to mingle with half-bloods and mudbloods. He told her she was a failure at being a witch and broke her wand right in front of her.

The sickening feeling of failure made Malicia run cold, as she had been when she'd woken up. Why would she dream such a thing? Clearly she was a very successful witch and had always been meant for the wizarding world, so why would her subconscious suddenly prey on her fears? Turning it over in her mind she then thought of Lia.

Lia had been in Ravenclaw and Malicia in Slytherin, the two had been an unlikely pair from the moment they met. But Malicia had been a peculiar Slytherin in general, having had many friends in many different houses. Many times, Malicia had been singled out by those in her house for having such associations. But after schooling had finished, Voldemort had fallen, and life had changed, Malicia and Lia had become estranged.

They exchanged the occasional owl, but had done little else. Eventually the occasional owl had turned into cards and photos during the holidays. Childhood friends tended to grow apart over the years. In fact, Malicia rarely spoke to any of her old school friends. The only person she really spoke to most days was Luna. They were too swept up in their work to do much else.

Reaching for a pot filled with what seemed like dirt, Malicia held it in her lap and considered what she was going to do next. Would it be too out of the blue to contact Lia to see how she was? Would her friend even be at her old home in New Zealand? It was possible that the old fireplace wasn't even hooked up to the Floo Network any longer.

Deciding she had very little to lose, Malicia threw a pinch of the powder into the fire which roared then changed colors and started to glow a bright green. Sparks shot out occasionally and once the flames had calmed down, Malicia got off of her chair. Kneeling next to the fire she took a deep breath and contemplated what needed to be done. With a wave of her wand, the door to her office closed and she stuck her head into the fire. The flames harmlessly touched her face and hair while she prepared to have a very long distance conversation with a very old friend.

"Lia Black's living room, New Zealand."

Lia Black had spent most of her morning in the most un-magical way possible: hiking with her muggle parents. While Scotland was home throughout the year, her true home was New Zealand. Her family lived in the suburbs of Lower Hutt, just outside of Wellington and had been in the area for thirty years. Though they moved far away, Lia was still admitted to Hogwarts when she was eleven and had managed to go to a wizarding school and work in the wizarding world without her parents knowing that she was a witch.

While on summer holiday Lia's life was completely non-magical, she even lived with her parents, though she did add a little bit to their house to accommodate her secret life. When she was a teenager she had convinced them to allow her to have the attic crawl space as her 'safe place', where she could go to get away from everything. Once she was of age, an extension charm made the space big enough to be comfortable and a few muggle repelling charms on the door made it a safe place for her to store her magical life.

Trying to combine her two worlds had always been difficult, but she seemed to manage well. For a time she tried working with those muggle-born in New Zealand, trying to accustom them and their parents to the magical life they were about to lead, but her parents began noticing the strange birds that kept flying around the house and started asking questions. Lia quickly found a new position. She started a new job as a tutor for Squibs, people from magical families born without magical abilities, trying to help them mingle with the muggle world and see that they could have a good, happy life without magic. She helped them learn skills and trades and taught them things that most people tended to overlook, like how to dress and manage muggle money, and formed connections to help them find and keep good jobs.

When her parents began noticing the strangely dressed people that visited her shop, she sold it and found a new position as a liaison with the magical creatures in the country, focusing primarily on the centaurs. She had always gotten along with them well due to her affinity at reading the stars, but again her parents started noticing things. She was about at the end of her rope when she heard that old Professor Sinistra was retiring. Before she could even draft a letter to Professor McGonagall to appeal for the job, a letter arrived offering it to her. Life had become much more manageable since the move to Scotland, and it was worth it. Now she could enjoy her time in the wizard world and continue to grow and learn there, but still have time with her family over the summer break without having to worry about her clientele.

As her family walked along the cliffs overlooking the sea, something seemed to settle on Lia's shoulders. She couldn't figure out what, but something was off. When the sun started to set, Lia drove her parents back home and decided to go to bed early, thinking that whatever was troubling her might vanish as she dreamt. She was wrong. Waking with a shudder, she sat on her bed and glanced at the clock- it was just before midnight and she had slept only a few hours, "Ugh, no wonder I'm still exhausted." She mumbled to herself. She had just decided to try to go back to sleep when she heard someone say her name from downstairs.

Thinking that her dad was cheating on his diet again, Lia got up from bed to catch him in the act. When she was halfway down the stairs she heard someone call out again, but this time it was coming from her living room, and most definitely not her father; it was a woman's voice. Grabbing an umbrella from the rack near the door, Lia cautiously opened the sliding door that led to the living room and jumped inside, hoping to scare whoever dared brake into her home. She did not expect to see a head floating in her fireplace.

Malicia saw Lia approach out of the corner of her eye, "What are you doing with that?" she asked, nodding to the umbrella.

Lia looked flabbergasted as she stared at the green flames that surrounded her childhood friend's head. She had not seen Malicia in years but there was no doubting that this head belonged to her. "I thought you were a burglar." She said dumbly as she continued to stare.

"Well put it down and come over here, I can't see you properly. I feel like I'm going cross eyed with you standing off to the side there."

Snapped out of her trance-like state, Lia quickly returned the umbrella and slid the doors shut to the living room. "Sorry, I just woke up and I'm still not all here. How are you Mal?" she asked as she sat cross-legged before the fire.

"Right, time change," Malicia said, "I forgot about that."

Lia shrugged. "It's okay, I was up anyway. It's funny that you should be here right now actually, I just had a dream with you in it."

Malicia looked at her friend intently, "What happened?" she asked sharply.

Lia looked at her friend, slightly confused at the intensity she showed but decided to comply; Malicia had always been intense about things that most people didn't pay attention to. "We were young, probably third or fourth year, and walking through the Forbidden Forest with the centaurs. Some of the details are a little fuzzy, but when we walked back out of the forest, we weren't on Hogwarts grounds anymore; we were here, in New Zealand. My parents came out of the house and saw the centaurs and freaked out. When I got them calmed down and told them about Hogwarts and wizards and explained all of the weird things that had always happened around me, they told me I was a conniving liar and that they wanted nothing to do with me. I ran after them crying, telling them I would denounce the wizarding world but they wouldn't even look at me. When I turned to go back, Rowena Ravenclaw was standing between me and you and the forest. She snapped my wand for being willing to turn my back on our world and condemned me to be a child lost between two worlds, never having a real home…" Feeling the chill of that rejection again, Lia hugged herself, temporarily forgetting that Malicia was with her.

"Ravenclaw was there?" Malicia asked, calling Lia back to reality.

"Yeah, I thought that was weird too, but why the sudden interest?"

"Apparently you aren't the only one dreaming about Hogwarts." Reluctantly, Malicia relayed her dream, emphasizing Slytherin's presence. "When I woke up, Luna, my business partner, told me that McGonagall had contacted her and told her that if she heard of anyone having strange dreams that she wanted to know. This is affecting a lot of people."

Lia digested the information in silence for a few minutes, turning the new details over in her mind, trying to figure out what it all meant but no epiphanies came. "Maybe I should head back to town early and have a talk with Professor McGonagall. I wasn't going to leave for a few more days, but maybe it would be a good idea to cut my vacation short."

"I was going to have a talk with her when I got to Hogwarts as well."

Lia looked at her quizzically, "You're going to Hogwarts?"

"I'm going to be starting a new class, Foreign Magic. Minerva contacted me a few months ago."

Lia looked speculatively, "That old coot, she's calling in all her people. I'm not big on coincidence; she's had to have known something was going on." Suddenly Lia grinned, "It's going to be great tearing apart that school again with you there; we can wreak havoc like we used to!" Malicia grinned and was about to respond when Lia heard the squeak of the stairs. Her face paled as remembrances of the dream still clung to her, "Crap, someone's awake."

"You should go get your umbrella." Malicia smirked.

Lia gave her a tired smile, "Yeah, it worked so well the last time. How are you getting to Hogwarts next week?"

"The Express, for old time's sake."

Lia heard mumbling in the foyer and quickly stood, "I'll be up in a few days, probably at the Leaky Cauldron and I'll catch the train with you. I'll send an owl when I'm back in town."

The sliding door scraped against the floor and Malicia saw the slightly panicked look on her friend's face, "I'll talk to you later." She said before disappeared with a 'pop'.

Lia turned and saw her father standing in the door, a piece of pie sitting on a plate in one hand with his fork hovering halfway to his mouth, cherries juice dripping silently onto the floor. Putting on a shaking smile she said, "Hey Dad, what are you doing up?"

The fork clattered onto the plate as Lia's father pointed soundlessly to the fireplace. "What was that?" He asked, his voice husky.

Lia gave him a confused expression, "What was what?" she asked kindly.

"There was something, someone, in the fireplace! She looked like your old school friend Mal…"

Lia chuckled nervously and took his arm, leading him out of the room, "Oh Dad, I haven't heard from Mal in years! You must have just been dreaming."

Once she had convinced her dad that he was partially crazy, she sent him to bed and ran to her room and began packing for her journey. The sun was barely over the horizon when Lia came downstairs, dressed in her muggle best for the flight. Her mom, always an early riser, was shuffling about in the kitchen and looked surprised to see Lia surrounded with her luggage. "I thought you weren't leaving until the end of the week!"

Lia helped herself to her mom's eggs as she explained, "There's been a problem at the school and they need me there early. I'm sorry Mom but I really can't help it."

Her mother looked at her sadly, she always missed her daughter's company when she was gone. "Well, let me get dressed and I'll take you to the airport at least."

Lia quickly drank a glass of milk while shaking her head. Before she could explain a honk was heard from the front driveway. "I've already called a cab, I really can't wait."

Her mother was clearly miffed at this point and crossed her arms. "Were you going to run out on me and your father?" she demanded. "Well you had better call when you land, and we will be having a talk then too." Lia gave her an apologetic hug and kiss before grabbing her bags and racing out the door. Her mother watched her go sadly before turning and stepping on something sticky that smelled strongly of cherries. "And you had better be able to tell me why there's cherry pie filling on this floor!" She yelled out the door as Lia sped off for another year away.

After speaking to Lia, Malicia spent the afternoon digging through paperwork in her office and trying to settle into her new space, despite the fact that she'd leave it in a week's time. No matter how she tried, something kept aching in her mind. How many people were having dreams involving the founders? What was the significance of them, if any? What powerful magic had been cast over the whole of the world to cause such a phenomenon?

"I know that look." Luna's ethereal voice startled Malicia so severely that she nearly leapt out of her chair and flung the stack of papers in her hand across the room. "Sorry, I'll start wearing bells again."

"You're just a magical ninja." Malicia shook the surprise off and offered her partner a smile. "Don't worry about it. I was in the zone anyway, I wouldn't have heard you if you had a squawking parrot on your shoulder."

"Are you having a bad reaction to the Bertie Bott's again?" Luna looked puzzled by Malicia's statement. The dark haired woman chuckled and leaned her head back against the lining of her chair.

"You always have a knack for making me laugh, Luna."

"I was being serious."

"That's why it's funny." Malicia got up from where she sat and placed a hand on Luna's shoulder. "What do you need Luna?"

"I was going to tell you that you should go home." Luna smiled, though she still seemed puzzled by Malicia's behavior. Then again, both girls were quite peculiar so they had learned to overlook the smaller oddities about the other.

"Home? I've been staying upstairs."

"I know you have been, but I think it's time you go home." Luna turned away from her friend. "I'll bring dinner by later if you're still up for it. Newt will be out of town for a few more days and it's lonely after the store closes." Malicia didn't immediately respond. She'd avoided going home for weeks for a multitude of reasons, the biggest of such being that it didn't feel like home. Of course, it had been her parents' house but she felt more at home in the woods than in a place she could barely recall on the edges of her memory. The second foremost reason being that the place was in disarray from years of not being lived in so she would have to spend hours cleaning before the place was livable. "You've waited long enough."

"I guess you're right. But it's so _messy,_ Luna." Malicia pouted out her bottom lip and slumped her shoulders in dismay.

"I'll help you clean. Even with magic it'll take a while but many hands make light work."

"You're full of clichés today." Malicia stated simply but reached to grab her dark emerald green cloak to wrap around her shoulders. Even in the warmer weather she preferred to be covered. Hooking the silver snake shaped clasp on her shoulder she nodded toward the door. "What crazy thing is on the menu for tonight?"

"Something the muggles call Chinese take-out." Luna smiled brightly. The two had taken to trying different varieties of muggle food from a town nearby out of curiosity. It was humorous because others in the town had grown curious seeing their different food at the store and had become regular patrons of the same restaurants nearby. Malicia was simply waiting for one of the local witches or wizards to start up a muggle restaurant of their own that would sell exclusively in the wizarding community.

"I do hope it's better than the fast food you brought with you the other day. I'm pretty sure that burger is still bouncing around in the shed out back." Malicia grimaced as she adjusted her cloak.

"I always bring a backup just in case, don't worry." Luna smiled knowingly. Malicia exchanged a few more pleasantries with her friend before she walked into the thick air of the evening. Clouds were gathering overhead, but there was little to no threat of rain. Walking slowly through the marketplace of the large wizarding town of Mirare, Malicia didn't bother to look where she was going. She'd made the trip to the old house on the outskirts of town multiple times but had rarely spent more than a handful of minutes there.

Mirare was starting to close shop for the day. The business district was usually bustling all afternoon with witches and wizards both local and foreign shopping and mingling about. The local Inn had expanded threefold in the last year due to the increasing amount of visitors. It was the perfect place for Luna and Malicia to have opened their shop. About an hour outside of Cardiff in Wales, it was settled in the forest and hidden from muggles all about thanks to muggle repellant charms. If muggles got close to the town they'd suddenly recall something incredibly urgent they needed to do elsewhere.

Walking out of the business district, Malicia walked past the smaller homes, through a park and up a small hill where larger and older homes lay; in the darkest corner of the darkest street stood a graying, gloomy looking manor. Grimacing at the old building as she stood in front of the wrought iron gates in front of it Malicia looked longingly to the town that looked far more inviting in the setting sun than her home did.

All the building needed was a flash of lightning behind it to make it look haunted. The ghosts inside were not what Malicia feared, but the memories. She wasn't sure whether she was more afraid of remembering the little bit of time she had with her parents during childhood or of not being able to remember any of it at all. The place felt strange to her and far too extravagant for her needs. But still, Malicia wanted to preserve the little bit of her parents that she had left. Opening the creaky and rusted gates, Malicia winced at the sound then started up the winding pathway through the overgrown foliage to the front door.

In the foyer Malicia reminded herself why she didn't want to stay in the house again. The place was filled with boxes that were half falling apart and strewn helter-skelter all around. After her parents had died, their various belongings had been slowly transferred from around the world to their home and no rhyme or reason had been left to it. Walking out of the foyer and down the hall, Malicia waved her wand absentmindedly and the oil lamps around the room lit the hallway up brightly. Continuing through the hall and to a large room at the far end of the manor she entered the library. The fire roared to life as though it had never been extinguished in the first place. This had been the only room that Malicia had spent any time in since her return.

Her parents had been as obsessed with the strange and peculiar as she had always been. Malicia could only assume that's where her fascination with other cultures had begun. The collections of books lining the walls from floor to ceiling in no particular order had invited Malicia on multiple occasions. But the unsettling feeling of the house had always sent her packing a few hours later and she'd never tried to take the books with her. For some reason, it felt wrong to take her parents things even though they were rightfully hers. Brushing her fingers against the dusty bookshelves, Malicia stopped short when she saw one of the shelves had been recently cleaned free of dust entirely. When had she done that? She didn't remember cleaning anything in the house outside of the sitting room. Cocking her head curiously to the side, Malicia peered at the bindings of the books to see what was on the shelf.

Her heart nearly stopped in her chest when she read the title of the second to last book on the shelf. "Dreamers: The Window to the Human Spirit and a Pathway to the Heavens by Elias Grimstone. What are the odds?" Malicia pulled the heavy book off of the shelf and slipped into the armchair near the fire. A puff of dust emerged from the chair when she sat, resulting in a coughing fit. "_Tergeo!_" Malicia waved her wand between coughs. The dust dissipated and the chair puffed up, rid itself of dust, mire and cobwebs. It looked as though it had never been filthy at all.

Coughing still, Malicia made a face and muttered several nasty curses under her breath before glancing back down at the heavy book in her lap. She'd definitely have to make an attempt to clean before she went through anymore of the library to prevent another inhalation of dust. Opening the book, Malicia browsed through the pages, finding very little of any interest. The book seemed far more boring than she had expected it to be considering how significant the find had seemed. If it was so ordinary, what was this ache in the back of her thoughts telling her she was missing something big? Malicia closed the book and sighed heavily. Leaning her elbows on top of it she held her head in her hands and tried to consider what she was missing. Her nightmare was weighing heavily on her mind, but not what had occurred within it. Earlier it had bothered her that her fear of failure had manifested so nastily in her dream but now it bothered her that the dream had occurred at all. It was just too much coincidence for Malicia to dismiss.

Getting up to put the book away and start cleaning the other armchairs so that Luna wouldn't suffocate when she arrived with their meal, Malicia cursed again when the book fell right out of her lap and onto the floor. Grumbling something about being too old for such nonsense, she sighed heavily and reached to pick up the book that had fallen open upside down.

Curiously, she turned the book over and stared at the page that had been opened. There was a very small excerpt on the Staff of Dreams. Reading over it, Malicia whispered the words out loud and knew this was what she had been looking for. This was the mystery that was hidden in the recesses of her mind from years past that she couldn't put her finger on. "_Said to be an artifact of a very powerful witch or wizard, The Staff of Dreams will only appear to those worthy of obtaining it. The road to possession of the staff is said to be harrowing and dangerous and little is known about the method. The only thing that is certain about this magical legend is that the bearer of the Staff wields dangerous and unknown powers. It is rumored that the effects of such a magical artifact can be felt throughout space and time._"

Malicia closed the book and placed it back on the shelf. Raising her wand she started to rid each of the bookshelves of dust so that anyone who looked at the books after her would have no idea which she had pulled out of the bookshelf to examine. Glancing around the room, Malicia suddenly felt paranoid. She'd known what the widespread epidemic of nightmares meant but had dismissed it before she'd even woken up properly that morning. Now that she'd thought about it a little longer she knew exactly what had happened.

Someone was after the staff. There were very few who knew of its existence and even fewer who had any idea how to obtain it. Malicia was one of those few. In her youth she had been obsessed with the staff and how to find it. Once she'd gotten older and a bit wiser, she'd realized the dangers that would befall her and her loved ones if she pursued such magic. Not wanting or needing such power, she'd abandoned her quest and her obsession and let sleeping dogs lie, so to speak. Smiling, she couldn't help but think that Luna had rubbed off on her quite a bit; even her mind was functioning in a sea of clichés and metaphors.

But now someone else was after the staff and if they obtained it, who knew what hell they would unleash upon the world? Finishing up with her dusting of the shelves, Malicia left the room with the roaring fireplace and crept up the old creaky stairs in the grand hall of the manor. Once up the stairs she continued around the balcony of the room and up another flight of stairs at the opposite end of the room. She continued up the stairs and over the old musty carpets until she reached a lonely door at the end of a dark hallway. Holding her wand up, illuminating the hallway for her she stared at the door.

Through the door she would find there was no turning back. Was it really worth it? Reaching her hand to touch the doorknob, Malicia stopped and hesitated. There was a sound from somewhere below, the familiar creak of the front door and uncertain gallop of Luna Lovegood's shoes against the floor. "Malicia, I brought dinner." Her voice echoed through the hallway. Retracting her hand from the doorknob, Malicia considered telling Luna what she planned to do but immediately rejected the thought. Anyone who knew what she was up to would be in immediate danger. She didn't know who she could trust or if her assumptions were even true. It could've been a different sort of magic entirely that had caused the widespread dreams. In the pit of her stomach, as she walked back through the winding hallways of the manor, Malicia knew that wasn't true.

The only way to stop someone from obtaining the Staff of Dreams and wielding its unknown, but surely dangerous, power would be to get to it before them. As she arrived downstairs and shared the odd tasting muggle food with her business partner, Malicia continued to weigh her options. As the two women cleaned the library into the late hours of the night, she had nearly talked herself into it. By the time she was saying goodnight to Luna and locking the front door of her home, Malicia knew that before the night was over she would've begun the most dangerous adventure of her life.


	2. Winding Pathways

Lia Black stepped off the plane in London with her cell phone buzzing. She rolled her eyes and dug in her purse as she stumbled through the terminal with her carryon luggage. Her mother was already calling her. Refraining from scoffing in annoyance, she picked up the phone and proceeded to try to placate her mother, "Yes Mom…I understand…of course, it was rather rude…I'm sorry that you felt that way…no, I don't just use you guys like a hotel…of course I appreciate all you do for me…yes, I will tell Professor McGonagall that you don't appreciate my vacation being cut short…I'm sorry, I can't explain the emergency to you, it's confidential…well, actually, there are a lot of confidential things in schools nowadays…yes Mom but that was a long time ago…no, I'm not calling you old…" and so the conversation continued as Lia gave apologetic looks to the travelers around her, glaring at her for using her phone in the lifts and tubes.

She hailed a taxi once she was outside and had him let her off at a small music store on Charring Cross Road, her mother continuing to make her feel worse about the quick way she was forced to leave home. As she neared the sign for the Leaky Cauldron, her signal began fading, "Look Mom, I'm losing signal so I've got to go. Yeah, I'll call you later okay? Give Dad my love, bye!" She hung up and walked inside before the phone had time to ring again. One of the benefits of the wizarding world, there was too much magic in the air for muggle electronics to work properly. Her cell phone was as good as a paperweight inside these doors and she was grateful for the escape. Taking a deep breath, Lia stashed her phone and made her way to the bar, "'Afternoon," she said to the barkeep, "do you have an available room?"

The barman, Raymond, looked her over suspiciously before reluctantly nodding. "It's two galleons a night or eleven for the week." Lia dug in her bag for a handful of galleons, being sure to include one for Raymond to assure his immediate assistance for the remainder of her stay. Eagerly the stooped man came around the counter and took Lia's bag from her hand, "Allow me to show you to our best room, Ms. Black." He said, bowing as he led her up the stairs. Once she was alone, Lia opened her suitcase and dug inside to pull out her wizard robes, almost falling in twice before catching herself on the rim of the bag. Her parents had always been so amazed at her packing skills, a simple pilot's bag and a purse to carry all that she needed for a three month vacation.

Lia smiled to herself and shook out her robes; it was always the little things about the people she loved that she appreciated the most. Once dressed, Lia was anxious to dive once more into wizarding culture, to stretch her legs from the flight, and maybe do a little digging on dreams. Stepping out the back door of the bar, Lia tapped her wand against the brick wall and watched as the bricks moved and slid into place, revealing a beautiful archway that opened onto a cobblestone road. No matter how many times she came to this place, that sight still gave her immense joy, confirming in her once again that she was a part of this magical world. With a grin on her face, Lia began her trek through Diagon Alley.

Diagon Alley was one of the few wizarding towns in England. Its entrance through the muggle world was on Charring Cross Road through the Leaky Cauldron, but witches and wizards could travel through fire to most of the shops in the small village. If someone simply walked through the street with all the shops closed, it would look like any old town in London, but in the middle of the afternoon with doors open, not even muggles could mistake oddity of their merchandise or their clientele. Clothing stores were not filled with jeans and blouses, instead there was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, instead of cooking supplies there was an apothecary with barrels of snake eyes and newt tails with steel, bronze, pewter, and golden cauldrons on display.

There was a pet store, but instead of the usual dogs and cats there were cages of tap dancing mice and owls of every kind and color. Instead of sports stores that would have baseball or football supplies, there was Quality Quidditch Supplies, with a wide variety of brooms, flying golden balls called snitches, and cages of black balls that were flying around trying to run into people called bludgers. Halfway down the street was a marble building that said Gringotts Bank, a large building with extensive underground caverns run and protected by goblins. This is where Lia made her first stop of the day, to refill her purse and prepare for the coming year. As she got in line to hand her key to the goblins at the teller windows, Lia heard her name being called; "Professor Black, Professor Black!" She turned and saw a young boy with blonde hair racing towards her, pulling his parents behind him.

Lia smiled fondly, "Good Afternoon, Frank." She turned to the boy's parents and shook their hands warmly, "Neville, Hannah, how are you?"

Neville was about to answer when Frank cut him off, "Guess what Professor Black! Mom and Dad said that for my birthday they're going to get me a new telescope that tells you the names of the stars when you look through it! It can show their movement over a whole week too!"

Hannah smoothed her son's hair, "He's been asking for one since your first class, he really loves astronomy."

"He's been one of my best students in the subject." She admitted. "Did you have a good summer?"

"It's been uneventful." Hannah said with a relieved sigh, "That's always good."

Lia laughed, "I understand completely."

"How was New Zealand?" Neville asked as he and Lia came to the front of the queue and handed their keys to the goblin. "Your parents doing well?"

"Yeah, I always miss New Zealand when I'm here but, it's nice to home again." The four friends climbed into the mining cart, following the goblin. They chose not to continue their discussion as the cart they were in pitched forward and began the twisting, turning, nauseous ride to their vaults. Vaults under Gringotts had numerous levels of security; some had keys, some needed a goblin's finger, some their hand, some had dragons guarding them. To get to the vaults, patrons had to ride the mining cars through a roller-coaster type maze of the labyrinth of tunnels underground that only the goblins could navigate. When each had finished filling their purses, they returned to the surface and made their way to the street. "Well, I've got a few places I've got to hit and some research to do," she said as way of parting, "I'll see you lot at the train station in a few days!" With smiles and waves, Lia made her way through the street toward Flourish and Blotts book store.

Lia let her fingers graze the sides of the leather tomes as she walked from aisle to aisle, taking in her favorite scent of old, dusty books. Occasionally she would pull one from the shelf and flip through it, always entertained by the pictures that tended to accompany many of the spells, potions, and accidents that were explained. Eventually she found her way over to the history section where only one other person was flipping through books. With an expert eye, she quickly located a half a dozen books that centered on the founders of Hogwarts. The books ranged from their more professional biographies, to their personal quirks, to the types of magic they performed, to information about the places they were from. As interesting as everyone's personal dreams were, it was obvious that the founders were the common thread and Lia knew that she needed to know everything she could to prepare for whatever they were going to get themselves into.

The last few days of the summer came and went with little excitement; Lia saw many of her students and their parents around Diagon Alley. Many of the ones she met had been in school with her and their kids were just starting at Hogwarts or had only been there a few years. She caught up with who she could, gently probed for confirmation of founders, but generally enjoyed reuniting with her classmates. She ran into Ernie McMillan, a foreign wizard liaison with the Ministry of Magic, George Weasley and his wife Angelina, formerly Johnson, who still ran Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, Draco Malfoy and his young son, as well as many others. It amazed her how far everyone had come, how so many peoples' lives had changed in the years since they went to school. Voldemort's rise to power, and subsequent fall, changed the lives of almost every person in wizarding England, but specifically those that centered in the final battle of Hogwarts. People had been forced to grow, change, and see who they really were in that horrible night; not everyone liked what they saw.

When September first came around, Lia made her way through London to Kings Cross Station. With excitement that she hadn't felt since she was just beginning at Hogwarts, Lia grinned at the seemingly solid wall between platforms nine and ten before running straight into it. Instead of crashing into the solid post, she emerged on the other side. Witches and Wizards milled all around, rushing left and right while guiding their children that carried cumbersome trunks filled with their school supplies for the year. Platform 9 ¾ was as busy as it always was on the first of September due to the rush of students preparing for the trip to school.

The bright red Hogwarts express was on the tracks already filled with students who were waving out the windows of compartments on the train or yelling to their parents some last minute things they'd forgotten. Lia smiled at the sight. Usually she wouldn't take the train up to Hogwarts with the students but since Malicia had instructed her that this would be her method of travel she'd figured it would be a good time for the two to catch up.

Weaving through the groups of witches and wizards dropping off their children, Lia waved at the students who greeted her and the parents who recognized her from either her old school years or as the Astronomy professor at the school. Stopping near the entrance at the tail end of the train, Lia stared at the magnificent set of train cars in front of her. She'd spent many years of her life traveling to and from Hogwarts on the train and the memories made her smile.

"Lia?" A familiar voice woke her from her reverie and she spun around and smiled.

"Professor!" The smiling face of James Potter met her, followed by his father Harry wearing a very similar smile, though his face was lined with the weariness of not sleeping. Had Harry been having nightmares just like she had?

"Well hello there, Potters." Lia smiled pleasantly.

"Are you riding the train?" James looked excited at the very prospect of such a thing. It wasn't very often that teachers rode the train for the trip to the school.

"I am, actually."

"Dad, did you hear that? Professor Black is going to ride the train with us!" Without giving his father a chance to respond, James turned back to Lia, an excited expression across his face. "Would you sit with me and my friends?"

"I'm actually meeting a friend on the train, James. Why don't I just sit nearby? I promise to buy you something from the trolley." Lia patted the young man on the head. She'd never been very close to the Potter family but being the decent witch that she was she'd fought alongside Harry when he'd waged the war against Voldemort. In a way, all those who stood together at Hogwarts had forged an unbreakable bond and most had managed to keep in touch over the years. While the horrors that Voldemort committed were unspeakable in those dark times, in a way it had united the whole of the wizarding world in ways that hadn't been done for years prior.

Before his son could object, Harry spoke up, "James, why don't you go find your mother and say goodbye to her okay?" James whined in response but did as he was told, head slumped and shuffling his feet as he went. "You're really riding the express into Hogwarts? Feeling nostalgic are you?" Harry chuckled, turning his attention to one of his old schoolmates. He'd never been close to the woman, but had fond memories of nearly all of his classmates

"I usually apparate into Hogsmeade and simply make the trip like the rest of the staff but this year I'm making a special exception." Lia smiled knowingly. It was peculiar for teachers to ride the express, but not unheard of.

"You mentioned a friend was riding the express." Harry nodded knowingly.

"Yes!"

"I don't suppose that friend would be me, would it?" Appearing like a bat out of the shadows, Malicia apparated with a crack next to the two. Lia nearly leapt out of her skin, stumbling backwards while Harry remained standing upright, seemingly not startled by the sudden appearance of the raven haired woman. Laughing, but covering her mouth as she did so Malicia held her hand out to Harry in greeting.

"Good to see you, Potter. You look like hell." Malicia shook hands with the taller man then nodded toward Lia who was dusting herself off and trying to act like nothing had happened to make her jump out of her skin. "Were you that jumpy after spending so much time around muggles as a kid? Do you see what happens when you stay away from magic for so long? It serves you right." Retracting her hand Malicia then smiled at her old friend. It had been so long since she'd seen her in person that she wasn't sure how to react.

"If I suddenly got used to it, what fun would be left for you?" Lia laughed then threw her arms around her old classmate in greeting. "It's so good to see you, Mal!" Malicia returned the sentiment.

"I hate to interrupt ladies, but I see my wife scowling at me." Harry chuckled. "It was great seeing you. Please keep an eye on my trouble makers, will you?"

"See you, Harry." Lia smiled politely.

"I have eyes on the back of my head, Potter, no worries." Malicia watched him walk away then turned back to her old friend.

"So, it's been a good fifteen years since I last saw you in person and you choose to scare the daylights out of me. I see you haven't changed."

"I actually saw you when I came onto the platform and decided this would be more fun." Malicia nodded toward the train, holding her small suitcase that she'd bewitched to hold the things she'd packed for the year. "Though you reacted just as predicted, so speaking of not changing…"

"Touché." Stepping onto the train, weaving through the students who nodded or spoke in greeting to Professor Black, Lia led them toward an empty compartment. James peeked his head out into the hallway and waved excitedly toward the two women.

"Over here! I told people to save this one for you, professor!"

"Thank you, James." Lia smiled kindly then led Malicia into the compartment. Both women took their seats just as the train started to pull out of the station.

Word of the two witches soon reached the students on the train and Malicia and Lia had a steady flow of visitors to their little room. Lia was easily one of the students' favorite teachers at the school and everyone was interested in who the new teacher was and what she would be teaching. Lia took the time to introduce students as they poked their head into the compartment, including their family if they were the offspring of one of their former classmates. In a few short hours, Malicia had met most of the student body. When the novelty of professors on the train had worn off, Malicia and Lia closed their door and took the time to get caught up with each other. "Is it just me or were those students more of a…mixed bunch?" Malicia asked once they were settled.

"Yeah, I asked McGonagall about that when I started at the school. Slytherin house still kind of does its own thing, but Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw have become more intermingled. She said that the sorting is even taking a little longer because so many of the kids can be sorted into a few different houses and it's harder to choose. It seems the camaraderie of Voldemort's last battle has leaked into our generation's kids. Parents aren't focusing so much on houses anymore and are actually encouraging their kids to spend time with the others. The cliques of the olden days died with Voldemort, it seems."

"Except for Slytherin?" Malicia smirked. "That doesn't surprise me."

Lia shrugged, "It's going to take a lot more for Slytherin house to change." There was a knock on the door as the tea trolley passed. Lia and Malicia, both feeling rather nostalgic from their time on the train, bought their favorite candies- chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Cauldron Cakes, and ice cold pumpkin juice to wash it down. True to her word, Lia grabbed a handful of Bertie Bott's and dropped them off in James' cabin on the train before returning to her friend and diving in to their sugary hoard. "So, are you excited about teaching?" she asked Mal through a mouthful of chocolate frog.

Malicia cautiously prodded her way through a box of Bertie Bott's, "Yeah, it's a little nerve racking though. I never did like crowds or…children." Lia laughed. "I remember how much I liked my teachers though and I want to inspire them like our teachers did us. I'm passionate about what I do so I'm hoping the rest comes naturally."

"Yeah, I was pretty freaked out when I first got the letter from Minerva asking me to teach." Lia recalled. "I wanted the job and everything, but the idea of being responsible for what went in to all of those little minds was frightening. What if I taught them something wrong or gave them bad information or blew one of them up or something? My first week here I wanted nothing more than to go back to my little room in New Zealand where I wasn't responsible for anything."

"But the kids all seem to like you so obviously you did okay."

"Oh yeah, teaching is a breeze!" Lia said with a wave of her hand. "The hardest part is deciphering their handwriting on the essays. I give as few of those as possible." Malicia chuckled, imagining her friend up in the wee hours frustrated by the handwriting of her students. "One of the great things about astronomy is that it's mostly practical. Especially for the first two or three years, it's mostly about just learning the sky and finding the constellations and planets, it's not until the kids start choosing it as an elective that I dive into planetary movements and what they can mean."

"Doesn't that dive into Divination a little bit? I'm sure Sybill loves that."

Lia shrugged, "It can be considered that but, I mean, Trelawney is still the main Divination teacher and we all know that she's full of it. I want the kids to know that the art of reading the future isn't _completely_ ridiculous. My teachings tend to line up more with what Firenze teaches them."

"Is Firenze still teaching after all these years?" Malicia asked, surprised to hear that the centaur was still serving at the school.

Lia nodded sadly, "Yeah, Bane and Magorian are still upset with him for helping Dumbledore out in our fifth year."

"Haven't you tried to talk to them?" Malicia knew her friend had always been close with the centaurs. If any witch or wizard could convince them to lay off of Firenze it would be her.

"Of course, but they won't hear it. They were thrilled when I came back to the school and I still spend a good amount of my free time with them, but if I even bring up Firenze's name they just change the subject or refuse to talk to me until I do. It's kind of childish really, but they're a stubborn people."

"Maybe we can both work on them when I get there. It will be nice to see them all again." Malicia had only ever been friends with them because of Lia. She was sure the centaurs wouldn't have had anything to do with her initially if it hadn't been for her.

"So tell me about your class!" Lia said excitedly, wiggling in her seat. Malicia laughed and choked on her pumpkin juice. "What kind of stuff are you going to teach? Are you doing a lot of practical stuff or mostly bookwork? Is Luna going to come and guest speak? Because that would be hilarious!"

"You know, I just might do that. The problem with Luna is that she believes in nearly _everything_ even when a lot of is proved to be well… bollocks. That's also the beauty of having her around though. She believes in everything. I've never met anyone with such an open mind." Clearing her throat, Malicia glanced out the window as she spoke.

"I think maybe you should save a visit from Luna until later in the year. It would be great to see her."

"Definitely. But for the most part I've split my teachings into regions for the first year of class. Students who wish to pursue it further will get more challenging information next year. Most of my class is going to be hands on. You know me, I think that people learn better from doing rather than reading."

"I see that hasn't changed much at all. I think you made that same argument during our third year in Herbology." Lia smirked as she tossed a few Bertie Bott's in her mouth, grimacing as she got a pepper flavored one. Coughing with her mouth closed she tried to keep a straight face while she ate it.

"You're still the comedian I remember from back then I see." Malicia rolled her eyes and picked up a chocolate frog. She hadn't eaten so much candy in years.

"I'm here all year."

"_Anyway_," rolling her eyes, Malicia continued on, "I've split my lessons into regions, as I said, and I'll cover the more basic styles of magic performed in other countries. I also plan on concentrating on what's actually fiction and helping separate myth from reality. There are too many preconceived notions about other types of magic. We've become complacent over the years. There are more ways than using a wand to perform a spell and they are just as practical and sometimes even more fantastic." There was a sparkle in Malicia's eyes as she spoke, passion thick in her voice.

"I think that some of the teachers could even benefit from that." Lia chuckled. "Don't be surprised if you see some of us sneaking in on your classes to learn a thing or two."

"Or just for the spectacle. Who doesn't like pretty explosions?"

"I guess I'm going to have to step up my game to compete!" A playful smile spread across Lia's face. It was astounding how easy it was to still chat with her old friend. If she didn't know better it would be like they'd never lost touch.

"What are you going to do? Teach the kids how to make their own stars? I think that's against one of the Wizarding laws." Malicia teased, pointing a finger at her friend playfully.

The girls spent the next hour or two talking about their plans for that year at Hogwarts and the things they wanted to do. They discussed former misdeeds and reminisced on the oddity of their friendship and how they came to be so close. Slowly conversation shifted to life after Hogwarts; where they lived, jobs they had, how they came to end up where they were now. It seemed like so much had happened in their years apart, but it felt like no time was lost between them. It may have been fifteen years since they had seen each other face to face, but to them it felt like fifteen minutes. They could share their lives, hopes, dreams, failures, and successes and still have the same close friendship that they had shared all those years ago.

In the middle of what was turning out to be a spectacular food fight with their leftover candy, the girls felt the train come to a shuddering halt. Luggage fell from the racks above their heads and worried voices flooded the hallway outside. In a matter of seconds the lamps that had been filling the rooms and hall with golden light went dark and it became obvious how late the day had become. Lia and Malicia pulled out their wands and opened their door to find a mass of students huddled in front of them. "Professor Black, what's going on?" a third year asked, clearly distraught. A few younger students echoed that question with different levels of fear on their faces, some held hands to their heads where luggage had shaken loose and fallen on them.

"We don't know what's happened yet, but we can't very well figure it out with you lot plugging up the walkway." Lia said kindly. "Now let's go back to your rooms and we'll see what we can figure out."

"I'll go to the conductor and see what's going on." Malicia said before disappearing into the crowd toward the front of the engine where she would speak with the conductor. The Hogwarts Express was a well-protected machine and she was concerned to think of what could have possibly tampered with the thing.

Lia nodded her acknowledgement and called for the prefects to help her. "Prefects, wands out!" she said over the commotion. A few dozen streams of light appeared down the corridor, illuminating the kids' pale, frightened faces. "Okay everyone, there's nothing to worry about." The kids looked at her skeptically. Seeing their faces, Lia couldn't help but laugh at the situation; her laughter had a way of easing the tension in the dark hall and she waved her wand and a series of cheerful orange flames danced above their heads, shedding light through the train. "Everyone back to your compartments while we figure out what's going on." Reluctantly the kids began to disperse, a small, happy flame following each group to their rooms. Smiling and shaking her head, Lia turned to go back to her compartment to wait for Malicia when she saw something dart past her window out of the corner of her eye. Was it just a trick of the light or had there really been something outside? Willing her wand light to extinguish she watched intently out the window. At first there was nothing, but the gripping uneasiness in her chest kept her watching the scene. Just as she was about to turn away, she saw it again. Through the wilderness beyond the train, something or someone was lurking.

Her easy smile shifted to focused determination as she pulled the window up and shimmied out through the small space provided. She dropped smoothly to the soft grass near the tracks and looked around for the fleeting shadow. Seeing movement to her left Lia took off at a full run without hesitation, her wand held firmly in her grasp and her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. She ran around the back of the train and saw the shape of a person heading for the dense forest a few yards away from the railroad tracks.

With an extra burst of speed, Lia raced after them into the forest, dodging most trees and roots effortlessly. After a sharp turn through a clearing, Lia lost sight of her prey and slowed to try and figure out exactly where she was. She spun to her left and right, hearing the sound of leaves crackling in the darkness, but she could see nothing there. Perhaps animals were simply running around nearby frightened because of the commotion she'd made, but something told Lia otherwise. An unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach told her there was much more going on.

Standing still and catching her breath she listened for another sound. When she heard footsteps in the leaves behind her, she threw a stunning spell from her wand into the forest. She ran in the direction of the sound to see if her spell had caught anyone, but there was no body in the vicinity.

Once more, a shadow caught her eye and she turned in the direction but her ankle snagged on a fallen branch and she fell rather gracelessly into a puddle of mud. Sitting in the mud, she caught her breath and listened in case her attacker took her fall for a moment of weakness. Then there was a sudden pain in her back. Wincing and hunching forward to deal with the pain, she at first thought she'd been stabbed but as the pain ebbed away she considered that perhaps it was simply a cramp she'd developed in her chase. What a strange place to develop a cramp though, in her back.

Listening still for the sound of anything near her she heard the cracking of leaves and breaking of sticks again. Cursing, she groped around for her wand and pulled herself out of the muck, her ankle throbbing. Ready to attack whatever was approaching her she stopped short with a gasp upon seeing what had stumbled upon where she'd fallen. A doe was standing nearby and looked frightened by her. Peering around the beautiful creature, Lia found a younger deer behind her looking equally frightened. Heaving a sigh of relief, Lia decided that the shadow she'd seen was either a trick of the eye or some kind of wildlife. Glaring at the offensive branch, Lia turned away from the animals and hobbled back through the woods toward the train. It took her much longer to limp to the front engine than it had to chase the shadow, so with a disgruntled expression she finally tapped on the door to the front engine.

"Where have you been?" Malicia demanded as she opened the door. "And what happened to you? You're a mess!"

"I thought I saw something; I was probably wrong. There were some deer, it was a huge fiasco." She said, clearly annoyed with herself. "My ankle is killing me from that walk and I pulled something in my back. Let's just… can we go? Let's just go back to our compartment and let the engineers get this sorted out." Lia muttered.

Malicia was clearly trying to hold back her laughter, "You _walked_ back?" she asked. "Why didn't you just apparate if you're hurt?"

Lia glared at her friend for stating something so obvious, "Because I didn't think of it." She grumbled.

Malicia shook her head and gave Lia her arm to help her walk, "You've been spending way too much time in the muggle world."

"You can't apparate at Hogwarts either, you know." Lia tried to defend her casual oversight. Waving her wand, she whispered the spell that would clean her robes free of filth and pouted at the stinging pain in her ankle. The train whistle rang overhead, letting those inside of it know they would be on their way again soon enough.

"Sure, that's why you forgot." Malicia rolled her eyes and helped Lia back into their compartment as the big red engine started off down the tracks once again.

"I see things are running smoothly in here once again." Lia loudly changed the subject, dusting herself off even though the filth and mud was gone from her robes.

"Honestly we have no idea what went wrong. They assured me that the train would be inspected upon arrival at Hogsmeade but seeing as you were the only person to leave the train and none of the other doors were opened we assume it's safe to go the rest of the way. An owl has been sent to Professor McGonagall making her aware of the situation. I figure if she thinks it's important we can talk to her about it once we get to Hogwarts."

After explaining to the students what had happened, while leaving out the details of Lia's fall in the mud, despite how Malicia kept chuckling under her breath about it, the two women sat in their compartment in silence. Malicia had pulled out a notebook and was writing notes furiously in the back of it, rather than the front. She'd always been peculiar about her notebooks. Lia on the other hand stared out the window and contemplated the events she'd experienced. What had happened outside of the train? Rubbing nonchalantly at the spot on her back where she'd pulled her muscle she felt the pain having gone completely. Had it been something she imagined? And what about the shadow that had darted in and out of the trees like it had been trying to confuse and evade her? There was no way it had been a group of deer. Deer didn't move like that!

The rest of the ride was spent in content contemplative silence, at least until Hogwarts became visible from the windows of the train. Students were leaning out the window, gasping in excitement and not just the first years at that. Even to those returning, the castle looked both fantastic and intimidating. It was a spectacle to behold to anyone who saw it.

The teachers helped the students unload from the train and were greeted by Hagrid, holding his familiar lantern and crying out for the "firs' years" to follow him to the boats. Malicia looked at the small, frightened looking group of thirty or so new students that walked over to the half-giant who was beaming down at them from behind his big bushy beard that had started to gray in his older age. Stopping to smile at the smaller kids in remembrance of her first year at Hogwarts, Malicia sighed heavily and shook her head.

"If it isn't li'l Malicia Maena. I heard y'were gonna be teachin' here this year." Hagrid called to her, making a wide path through the sea of students being led to the horseless carriages that would take them up the path to Hogwarts.

"Hello Hagrid, it's lovely to see you!" Malicia called out politely. "We'll catch up later; right now you've got your hands full!" Laughing as some of the first years started tugging on Hagrid's coat that was nearly as bushy as his beard, Malicia turned back to Lia.

"Are you ready for the feast?" Lia beamed, leading her friend toward one of the carriages that would take them to the school.

"Honestly I'm a little nervous." Malicia chuckled beneath her breath.

"Why? It's not like you're being sorted again."

"Oh I wasn't nervous back then." Malicia held her head up high. "Slytherin and proud."

"You confuse all the other Slytherins." Lia rolled her eyes but continued to joke with her friend on the ride to the castle. Once there they were greeted by the old caretaker of the grounds, Argus Filch, who was just as cantankerous as Malicia remembered him. They were led into the cavernous Great Hall that was decorated with the colors of each House within the school; red and gold for Gryffindor, green and silver for Slytherin, blue and gray for Ravenclaw and yellow and black for Hufflepuff.

It was as glorious and exciting as Malicia remembered it being but she had more on her mind than the feast in the Great Hall. She was far more concerned with what came after it. What would the current Headmistress of the school think of the dreams she and Lia had shared, along with several others. Even Luna had dreamt of something involving one of the founders of the school. While Malicia had an inkling to what it was, she wasn't sure if anyone else would put the pieces together. Then again, she didn't want to seem so pretentious in her thinking that no one else would be aware of the danger of widespread dream sharing.

Could McGonagall already know about the Staff of Dreams and how the object could be obtained? Guilt churned in Malicia's stomach but she somehow still managed to stuff her face with the delicious food provided by the school's house elves. With the new students sorted into their houses, which took longer than it used to thanks to the students indecision to where they would be placed, food devoured and the Headmistress' introductory and welcoming speech ended, the student body was led from the Great Hall by the prefects of their respective houses. Each group would be led to their separate common rooms where they would find their luggage and other belongings had been sent during the ceremony.

Watching the students leave the Great Hall, Malicia reminisced and soon disappeared into her own little world, at least until Lia swatted her arm and snapped her awake. Professor McGonagall was walking over to the two, her thin lipped smile, though friendly, still seeming intimidating.

"Miss Black, Miss Maena." She nodded her head respectfully. Malicia jumped awkwardly out of her chair and stumbled onto her feet. Lia snorted with laughter then stifled it as Malicia threw her a glare.

"Hello Professor." Lia waved politely.

"Oh come now, we're all adults here. It's Minerva now." Without another word she started down the steps and toward the door leading from the Great Hall. Malicia nodded to Lia and gestured toward the Headmistress, curious if they should follow her. Before Lia could answer, Minerva did for them, "I believe we had some business to discuss. We would be more comfortable in my office I think. After that, perhaps Lia can show you to your new office Malicia."

"Coming Professor, I mean… Minerva." Malicia made a confused face then started down the stairs, followed by Lia who was right behind her.

"Weird right?" Lia whispered as they walked to catch up with the spry Headmistress of Hogwarts.

"Super weird." Malicia laughed quietly.

The two girls followed the witch up to the seventh floor corridor. She stopped at a statue of a gargoyle that both Lia and Malicia had seen many times in their misadventures when they were younger. "Cattus cum Specula" McGonagall said; upon hearing the password the gargoyle came to life and sprang to the left, revealing a circular staircase that rotated upwards to the Headmistress' office. The three colleagues stepped onto the staircase and rode it up to the beautifully polished oak door.

Minerva made herself comfortable behind her desk and motioned for the girls to sit across from her. The headmistress' office was located in one of the many towers around Hogwarts. It was a large circular room filled with books, silver instruments that the two girls recognized from Professor Dumbledore's day, and paintings of the old headmasters and mistresses. There was only one chair across from Minerva, a hard, stiffed back chair that Malicia found herself closer to. Minerva raised her wand to conjure a seat for Lia, but Lia quickly raised her own, insisting on doing it herself. Minerva's eyes twinkled as Lia made a large, overstuffed chair fill the space. Once she had folded herself comfortably into the depths of the chair, she nodded to the headmistress to acknowledge that she was ready to begin.

"Comfortable?" Minerva asked with a raised brow.

Lia smiled, "Quite."

"Pleased with yourself?"

"Enormously," Lia grinned.

"I'm sure that by now you both have realized that something rather odd is going on." She began. "A week ago I began receiving reports of Hogwarts alumni having terrifying dreams. That was strange enough, but it became even clearer that something was afoot when it was discovered that all of those dreams starred the founder of the house they were in when they spent their days in our school. Of course I've heard less from the Slytherins, but that is their nature."

"Is it just the alumni?" Malicia asked. "What about the current students?"

McGonagall shook her head, "It appears that just of-age wizards were affected, and those outside of the school grounds."

Lia pulled one of her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on it, "But that was just a week ago, what else is going on?" Minerva looked at her with a raised brow. "You've been calling people in for months now, don't think we haven't noticed." Lia insisted, motioning towards Malicia for affect. "It's pretty random for you to call Malicia off of her nature hunts because you have a sudden interest in foreign magic, and last term you were all kinds of tense!"

"All kinds of tense?" Malicia said, looking over her shoulder at her friend. Lia stuck her tongue out at her. "Prof- I mean, Minerva, there does seem to be something more going on here than the usual wizarding mischief. I was surprised at your offer when I received it in June, though I'm happy to be here and excited to be sharing my knowledge, I can tell that something isn't quite right. And as renowned as I am in my profession, the last thing I expected was a letter from Hogwarts."

"That and Venus is approaching the fourth quarter." Lia said as if that settled everything.

Malicia rolled her eyes, "Does _anyone_ even know what that means?" she asked in exasperation, wriggling uncomfortably in her seat.

Lia shrugged, "The centaurs do."

Minerva waved her hand to halt the girls' banter, "Back to your original question, yes, I do believe that something more extensive is going on. Yes, I have been recruiting old friends, and yes, the centaurs are the only ones who know what that means. I don't want to say too much without the proper information; let's just say that I believe there is a new threat on the horizon and I want us on our guard."

"That's all you're going to give us, isn't it?" Malicia pouted, folding her hands on her lap and trying to find a comfortable position in the stiff chair that was clearly there to torture people with poor posture.

"Still clever after all these years, aren't you?" Minerva's eyes sparkled mischievously and the girls were reminded of Dumbledore. Maybe being aloof and mysterious came with the role of Headmaster of the wizarding school.

"You know if you really wanted our help, you'd tell us what's happening." Lia mused, sitting up properly in her chair. She'd tried to reason with Minerva on many occasions, but had always come out the loser.

"I don't want to put ideas into people's heads. I have little more to go on than a gut feeling. When I know something more, then so will all of those I've been in touch with. Trust me, you're not done seeing familiar faces at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I can only ask you to be on your guard."

"We climbed so many stairs for this." Malicia pouted and was glad that Minerva was smiling at her comment rather than glaring at her as she would've done years ago as her professor.

"And I thank you for your time." Minerva stood up, signaling the women to take their leave. Lia and Malicia started toward the door. "Miss Maena?"

"Malicia, please." The woman glanced over her shoulder at the headmistress who looked more serious than she had only moments ago.

"I trust that all has been well with you?" Malicia looked at Minerva suspiciously. Her stomach churned with guilt. There was, of course, far more going on than anyone knew but Malicia knew this was not the time or place to reveal her secrets. "If there are any problems you can always come to me."

"Everything's great Minerva." The older woman's name still sounded strange to Malicia's ears. Minerva nodded her head politely and then turned away.

After their conversation with Minerva, Lia lead Malicia to the sixth floor where their offices were located. Lia opened a strong, wooden door that revealed a plain office with a desk, chair, and empty shelves. In the back of the room was another door that led to Malicia's living quarters. "Sorry it's not much." Lia said through a yawn. "You'll have time to spiff it up though, I'm sure. It only took me a few weeks to make mine look like home." Lia pointed down the hallway, "My office is the second door on the left if you need anything. Have a nightmare free evening." She said with a smile.

A shadow seemed to flicker across Malicia's face, "Yeah, Lia, about that…" she began; Malicia's suspicions about the dreams weighed heavily on her and she wanted to tell Lia what she had discovered, but immediately stopped because Peeves, the school's poltergeist, lobbed a water balloon at her head.

Lia laughed as Malicia shot spells at the weaving pest until he disappeared down the hall. "Welcome back to Hogwarts!" She began walking to her office before turning back to her friend, "Oh! Were you going to say something?"

Something that McGonagall said held Malicia back; she still didn't have enough information. If she started telling people what she believed and turned out to be wrong it could cause chaos. There had been a series of muggle detective novels she'd read at a younger age that popped into her mind. It was not the best idea to spread crazy theories around like wildfire. People naturally began to twist facts to suit a theory instead of creating a theory based on fact. Perhaps that was what Minerva had been suggesting when she'd decided it best not to share what she knew. Malicia took a breath and shook her head, "No, it's just really good to see you, Lia. Get some sleep."

"It's good to see you too, Mal. Goodnight!" Malicia disappeared into her empty office and leaned heavily against the door. It was only her first day at Hogwarts and already she felt like it was going to be a very long year.


	3. New Terms

Malicia's first week back at Hogwarts had been somewhat of a roller coaster ride. At first she'd been terrified that her short temper with small children would get in the way of being a teacher; thankfully, she discovered that what she thought was a short temper was _actually_ good discipline. Her native house being Slytherin, many of the students were often apprehensive of her, they'd expected her to be cruel and give more homework than they could handle like other professors had done after coming from Slytherin house. The Slytherins, of course, had taken to her quite nicely and had welcomed her home. She was sure, with time, she would be found peculiar by her old house. Other houses had started to warm up to her once they realized her class was going to be interesting and that she wasn't holding the way they were sorted against them.

She spent most of the first week explaining what she was going to do throughout the rest of the year. Some kids had taken to it while others didn't understand the need to know more about other sorts of magic. Thankfully, curiosity amongst the students was rampant and most students opened up to her and started asking all sorts of questions. The books that the students had been asked to purchase in Diagon Alley in preparation for the school year had been one Malicia had started with when she was curious about other regions of the world. She thought it would be arrogant to cover her own books in her class when there was already plenty of other information for the students to find that would be better suited to her teachings.

Perhaps the best thing about her first week at Hogwarts was being reunited with her old friend Lia and of course some of her favorite teachers. Hermione was teaching at the school now as well, having taken the place of the former Arithmancy teacher. It was funny to see how the bright woman hadn't changed a bit since childhood. Unfortunately on Malicia's second day she'd gotten the woman talking about the rights of the House Elves that had changed drastically due to her work with the Ministry of Magic's Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Lia had nearly hexed Malicia for having gotten her swept into an hour long conversation during their only break that day.

Halfway through the week, Malicia was starting to remember her way around the school. She'd found herself reminiscing about the old days and the friends she'd lost touch with over the years. Her life had changed so much, it was hard to think she was the same person that had walked the halls so long ago as a curious student. But now that she'd returned to teach others, it was like she was bridging the gap between her past and present and finally picking up the pieces of a crumbled social life. Not that she'd ever really thought about how bad it had gotten, but considering Luna Lovegood was her protégé and also her only friend, it felt nice to have others to talk to. She had briefly considered that she would miss Luna while she was away at school, but found that impossible considering that she had already sent her several owls throughout the week, making Malicia aware of every sale they made and every curious customer who had come in. She'd even compiled a list of strange muggle foods she was waiting to try until Malicia had returned for one of the holidays.

After a particularly long class filled with Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors, Malicia started packing up her things for the night. Lazily, she waved her wand and watched as book after book slowly teetered to the edge of her desk and hopped dramatically off into her bag. It was the last class on a Friday afternoon and she was feeling particularly exhausted. The class had run longer than it was supposed to thanks to some mischievous Gryffindors trying to push their boundaries with the new teacher. One of the students had snatched a few pieces of paper off of Malicia's desk and unfortunately they had been bewitched papers from another country. She planned to start the next week off teaching about the papers and their origins and explaining how they worked. The three young third year boys who had snatched those papers had started spontaneously floating during the middle of her lesson so she'd used them as an example. She'd let them remain in the air while she explained the dangers of using magic that one didn't understand. Most of the students had been in hysterics by the end, including the three that were floating in the air. After she had finally made her point she'd let the children down. She couldn't stop their curious questions about what those papers had been and why they'd done what they had done.

After promising the last of the stragglers that she'd be sure to explain to them all about the paper magic during their next lesson she closed the door and started on cleaning up her classroom. After about ten minutes she heard a tapping on the door. With a wave of her wand it opened and a young third year Hufflepuff peeked nervously into the room. He had steely blue eyes and shaggy blond hair that seemed somehow familiar.

"Yes… Collin was it?"

"Yes Professor Maena, Collin Andrews." For his age his voice was surprisingly deep and Malicia did her best not to snicker. Teenagers were so awkward; sometimes she forgot how funny it was. "Do you have a moment? Or… you look busy, maybe I should come back later?"

"I'm just on my way out. If you like you may accompany me back to my office while I put my things away." Malicia picked up the suitcase that latched itself shut and started toward the door that Collin held open for her.

"Thanks, Professor." A familiar smile crossed his face and Malicia squinted while she tried to figure out _why_ it seemed so familiar.

"What is it you need, Mr. Andrews?"

"I was going over my courses via owl with my father." The boy seemed to carry his pride around on his sleeve, another attribute that seemed terribly familiar. "And your name came up as my new professor. He wanted me to ask you a few questions."

"Like what?" Malicia couldn't help but chuckle. What could a parent possibly want to know about her course? Surely they wouldn't be asking if it would be _dangerous_ for their student to participate. Going to Hogwarts was a danger in and of itself. Danger was a part of life and Malicia was pretty sure that parents who didn't accept such a notion wouldn't be sending their students to that particular school. Since Collin was in his third year, she was guessing this boy's father was well aware of the danger of being a wizard and all it entailed.

"Well, he wanted to know if you remembered a boy from your years at Hogwarts named Nico. He wasn't sure if you were the same girl he knew growing up and was curious. I told him I'd ask you and he actually told me… _not_ to." Collin drifted off and looked shifty eyed around the hallway.

Malicia froze in realization. That was why the little boy seemed so familiar. He was a spitting image of his father, well give or take a few small details. For one, his father's eyes had been green and he had a different shape about him entirely.

"So, your father, Nico, told you not to ask me if I remembered him or not?" Malicia actually laughed. Collin was apparently relieved to see the professor was smiling.

"I was curious, I couldn't help but ask. He's spoken about a Malicia before and it's not a very common name so I figured it was worth finding out."

"I understand your curiosity perfectly." Malicia smiled. Now that she'd realized that this boy must be Nico's son she couldn't believe it had taken her so long to figure it out. It seemed obvious now that it had been pointed out to her.

"So Professor Maena, did you know my dad?" Collin seemed to be feeling awkward again. Thankfully it was late in the day and she wasn't keeping him from any classes. Sure, he might be a moment later for dinner but it was Friday evening and she was sure half of his friends were taking their time enjoying the grounds before it got too late.

"Yes, I did." Malicia stopped walking when she reached the platform to the sixth floor hallway. "We were very close back in school days. Let him know I say hello if you ever manage to confess to him that you asked me anyway." Collin looked sheepishly aside.

"I'll work up to it when he's in a good mood. I knew it though." Collin smiled brightly. "You were kind of what I pictured from his old stories about Hogwarts."

"I'm not sure if I'm flattered or not. I guess it depends on what stories he's told you." Malicia smirked then messed up the young man's hair. He was shorter than some of the students in his year but if he was anything like she remembered Nico, he'd sprout up a few inches in no time. "Now if that's all, Mr. Andrews I suggest you get down to the Great Hall for dinner." Collin nodded his head, waved to Malicia then rushed down the stairs to a group of mixed Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors that seemed to be waiting for him. Malicia shook her head in surprise. Hogwarts really had changed, but it seemed to be for the better. Slytherin still seemed to be the most stubborn of houses, but even then she saw a few students intermingled with their green and silver capes amongst other groups. Even though Slytherins were still stubborn, at least some of them were breaking the mold and trying to be friends with the other students despite what color they wore.

Malicia walked into her office and set down her suitcase. Over the last week she'd rearranged her office twice and her living quarters three times. She'd been restless during the night and attributed it to the unfamiliar home, though she was unsure what truth there was in that thought. Removing her cloak, she draped it over the front of her desk and then sat down in her office chair.

The room was decorated in familiar silver and green colors, walls lined with books and shelves that were filled to the brim with artifacts she'd recovered on her travels. To a stranger it would look like a bunch of old junk but Malicia knew the secrets that dwelled within her trinkets and loved them even more for those reasons. She wasn't the one to always run around in the colors of her old house, but the nostalgia of returning to Hogwarts had renewed her pride in Slytherin house. Despite the reputation that Salazar Slytherin had garnered, he had been a powerful and wise wizard. She'd had many arguments with other wizards about such a thing. Clearly he had a fascination with the darker arts and had been stuck in his pure blood ways, but those had also been the times of that age of magic!

Why would the three other more benevolent founders have bothered to deal with Slytherin if he hadn't had an affinity for magic and love for learning that was shared between them? It was only logical that there had to be some positive aspects to the house founder in order for him to have been a part of the school. Even if he had become more of a sourpuss with age, Malicia was sure that at some point he had to have some redeemable qualities. No one was _truly,_ completely wicked.

So even though Malicia had been far removed from most of her Slytherin brethren during her school years, she'd always been incredibly proud to be part of it. It had made her peculiar but not an outcast amongst her peers. The other Slytherins had always accepted her as the odd member of their house, though Malicia realized it was probably mostly due to the fondness Nico had for her. He'd been one of the more popular Slytherin boys in school and her sweetheart for many years. It had been really nice to see his son and to hear about him. Deciding she'd had too much nostalgia for one day and feeling far more tired than one should feel after a week of school, Malicia got up from her chair and started out of her office. She would meet Lia, once again, for dinner in the Great Hall.

Lia's first week back at school had been uneventful and fairly routine. It had taken her a few days to get her sleep schedule adjusted as all of her classes had to meet at midnight at least once a week, so she found herself catching naps in the few hours she had between her classroom and her practical lessons. Neville's son Frank had been her most excited student, he was up at the astronomy tower nearly an hour before the rest of the class; he even beat Lia up the stairs. Before his first practical lesson, about halfway through the week, Lia laughed as she opened the door and saw him gazing through his telescope at the clear night sky, counting stars and watching their movements like a dance in the darkness. "Frank, you know you're not supposed to be up here without a teacher." She chided as she set up her own telescope.

Frank grinned mischievously with one eye still glued to the brass frame, "You're here now aren't you, Professor?"

Lia shook her head but smiled, amazed at the similarities she saw in Frank when compared to his father, Neville. For the first three or four years of school, Neville had been quiet and lacked the confidence to meet a teacher's eyes let alone speak to them without fear showing in his quavering voice, but after he had faced death and fought alongside his friends, his confidence grew and he turned into a powerful young wizard. As his confidence grew, so did his capability, and by his last year at Hogwarts he was standing up to Headmaster Snape, defending the students that were being harassed by the Death Eaters, and keeping hope alive at Hogwarts in its darkest hour. When Lia looked at Frank she saw that same gleam in his eyes that Neville had had when he finally found himself. She knew that this young man was going to be a great wizard, and with parents like Neville and Hannah, he would be a great man as well. "So tell me about your other classes." She said, returning her mind to the present. "What have you had so far this week?"

Frank squinted his eyes as he thought back over the last few days, "Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, and double Potions." He said, making a face with the last word as if it tasted horrible coming from his lips.

Lia laughed, "Not having a great time in your potions class, huh?" she asked. He shook his head, slightly embarrassed, "Don't worry, your dad was horrible with potions too. He managed to survive though and so will you. Your potions master can't be nearly as bad as Professor Snape was." She thought for a moment and looked slightly confused, "I don't think I've met the new potions master yet."

"I thought you liked Potions," He said accusingly.

"I did, Professor Snape was one of my favorite teachers, though I was a little disconcerted when he became headmaster, but we all were at that time. Potions can be really hard, exacting, but when I was in school I had a pretty awesome tutor."

"Really?"  
Lia nodded, "One of the guys in another house was really good, so much so that Professor Snape almost doted on him. We became friends and he helped me out. I wonder whatever happened to him…" she said, her mind trailing back to the lanky kid with the short curly hair and deep grey eyes.

Frank cleared his throat, calling Lia back to reality once more, "Um, Professor? You're blushing." Thankfully the rest of the class had arrived and Lia was able to dive into her teaching, resolutely, ignoring the smirk on Frank Longbottom's face every time she glanced at him.

As Malicia left her office and swung the door closed behind her she saw a cloaked figure sneak past her down the hall. Peering curiously at the figure, she could see it was a taller man with curly hair but that was just about all she could make out before he'd opened the door to his office and disappeared. Malicia could guess that was the new Potions Master.

"Really, they couldn't be any less broody?" Rolling her eyes Malicia walked past the line of offices and back toward the Grand Staircase. While she waited for the stairways to shift and change so she could make her way to the Great Hall she continued to rant on the subject. "What is it about bubbling boring potions that attracts antisocial sneaks?" Chuckling beneath her breath and starting down the stairs she caught up with Lia as she left her classroom.

"What are you chuckling at now?" Lia asked by way of greeting.

"Potions Masters and their broody aloofness." Malicia said. Lia looked at her with a raised brow before she explained the brief encounter. "We've been here for a week and haven't seen him; I just think that's a little weird."

Lia shrugged, recalling her conversation with Frank earlier in the week and decided to change the subject. The two chatted as they entered the Great Hall and made their way to the long table at the head of the room specifically set aside for the staff. Lia and Malicia made themselves comfortable as food magically appeared before them. They were in their customary seats, Malicia next to Hermione and Lia next to Neville, and Lia turned to Malicia and said, "You're right Mal, the house elves really outdid themselves tonight!" purposely speaking loudly to get Hermione's attention. Hermione immediately turned to Malicia and started up the conversation that was cut short earlier in the week. Malicia glared at her friend. "Oh, what was that Neville?" she said innocently, grinning and turning away from her friend, leaving her to listen to Hermione's breathless monologue for most of the meal.

Neville looked at Lia with a raised brow and chuckled, "That's just mean."

Lia grinned, "I know, but payback can be." He laughed and Malicia glared at him too.

Dinner in the Great Hall was superb, as usual, and teachers and students alike ate until not another crumb could pass their lips without them exploding. As the students dispersed, Malicia yawned and stretched, feeling exhaustion heavy on her bones. "Tired all ready?" Lia teased.

"You try listening to Hermione rant about elf rights for an hour and see how you feel." She glared.

Lia grinned impishly, "So touchy these days." She laughed.

Malicia rolled her eyes and said her goodbyes before making her way slowly to the grand staircase in the entrance hall. The stairs were mostly empty as Malicia made her way up the flights, having to work for every step as her limbs became heavy with exhaustion and her head became fuzzy. Dizzy with weariness she stopped on the stairs to the sixth floor and contemplated going down to see the school nurse. Then again, she had a very long week and it truly could just be that she wasn't used to being a teacher. On the other hand, Malicia's usual daily routine involved a lot of exploring and far more physical exertion than sitting behind a desk and giving a few lessons a day. Perhaps it was the different weather, or just an overload of nostalgia. While neither reason made sense, Malicia was willing to roll with them for now. If she didn't feel well in the morning she'd pay a visit to Poppy. She'd been meaning to visit the old nurse since her arrival but simply hadn't had a free moment.

Once back in her office, Malicia locked the door behind her and slipped into her comfortable living quarters. Her bed was a large four poster with a canopy decorated in shades of green and blue. Without even bothering to take off her boots, Malicia plopped face down onto the overstuffed mattress. While the bed looked like it was from another time, Malicia didn't mind. She'd always had a peculiar vintage taste in things. Perhaps it was because of the very little bit she remembered about her parents from her childhood, or how she'd found her parents' old home decorated but she'd always been partial to a more Victorian styling.

Vision blurring from weariness, Malicia considered getting changed or at least rotating on the bed so she wasn't lying with her legs awkwardly hanging off the side. Before she could do any of those things, sleep had taken her and deeply at that. Even if Peeves had come bursting in to remind her of his presence as he' done several times during the week, she wouldn't have woken up.

_Malicia's head was still spinning. Opening her eyes she could no longer see her comfortable and dated looking bed. Instead in front of her she saw the longest stretch of barren desert she'd seen in her many travels. Where exactly had she fallen asleep? Reaching to pinch her arm she yelped when she felt the pain rush through her. It certainly didn't feel like she was dreaming, but she could've sworn she had been in her living quarters at Hogwarts._

_ Taking a step forward to explore her curious surroundings, Malicia's vision started to blur and her surroundings became almost… darker, for lack of a better word. Rubbing her eyes, Malicia wondered if she was having some sort of horrible allergy attack. That couldn't be right; allergies didn't cause hallucinations, did they? Not the type that she'd be experiencing anyway. _

_ After rubbing her eyes, Malicia blinked and examined her surroundings again. Much to her surprise, and horror, her surroundings were completely gone. In front of her there was nothing but darkness, nothing but black. An uneasy feeling grew and churned in the pit of her stomach. What sort of nightmare was she having? Glancing upwards she saw that there was no moon, no stars, no light of any kind as there had been when she'd first looked around. She couldn't even see her hands or her feet. With the lack of sight came the fear of the unseen. Her chest tightened with anxiety and her breathing became shorter and ragged. "Get it together, Malicia" Even her voice seemed lost in the darkness that surrounded her. What if the world had completely disappeared and she was lost?_

_ Refusing to let fear cripple her, Malicia wiggled her feet on the ground beneath her. Her boots crunched against the dirt of the desert she'd seen before the light had been torn away from her. Relief flooded through her. At least the only sense she'd been robbed of had been sight. And even then, she expected that it was some trick of the world around her, to keep her shrouded in darkness. Taking a few uneasy steps forward, Malicia stumbled on something beneath her feet. There was a weird sense of displacement that came with the lack of sight. Her body no longer felt like her own and she couldn't seem to place where her limbs were._

_ Reaching to touch her face to make sure everything was intact, the relief continued to work away the knot in her stomach. Deciding it best to gather her bearings before working out how to wake up, Malicia reached to touch her legs. As she did something brushed against her back that made her shoot up suddenly. The hand or whatever had touched her had disappeared as quickly as it'd come. Perhaps it'd been some trick of the night. Clearly, the darkness was messing with her head. Wiggling her fingers, Malicia then touched over her arms._

_ Very clearly, something else touched her shoulder. Then another hand touched her leg. Malicia recoiled and nearly jumped out of her skin. But even the several feet she'd jumped hadn't freed her from the hands and claws that were touching at her skin. They weren't like her hands, they were slimy and scaly. Some were wet to the touch and others stubbly with some form of hair or fur. Shrieking in horror, even Malicia's scream seemed to be swallowed by the darkness. Trying to breathe to calm down, the hands didn't relent as they had when Malicia had taken a pause beforehand. Instead they grabbed at her, wrapping around her wrists and ankles and tried to pull her onto the ground._

Lia had said her farewell to Malicia in the entrance hall. She briefly thought that Malicia had looked a bit peaky, but let her continue up to her room unchallenged. Though Malicia had grown and changed quite a bit in their years apart, she was fairly certain that she would still refuse any kind of medical assistance and decided it wasn't worth the fight; she had other things to do that evening and decided to check on Malicia when she was finished. Her decision made, Lia headed out of the entrance hall and onto the extensive grounds of Hogwarts.

Lia's first week of classes had gone well, her students continued to grow in their interest of astronomy as they saw the progression of the stars and planets in the sky. The past few days she had been working with her more advanced students who began their study of the southern hemisphere and while showing them the different constellations, she had seen something that was slightly unsettling in the movement of the Phoenix. Because Malicia had gone to bed early and she didn't need to worry about being up for classes the next day, Lia decided to go and have a chat with the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest and get their opinion on the matter.

As she walked deeper into the forest the light around her faded more and more. At first she did not think much of it, the Forbidden Forest had always been dark and treacherous at night, but she knew her way to the centaurs gathering place well and didn't worry. It was only when she entered the Gazing Vale that she noticed that something was wrong. The Gazing Vale was a small hillock in the midst of the forest that was cleared of trees and grass and berry bushes that grew under the warm rays of the sun; here the centaurs would gather to get an unimpeded view of the stars and share their insights on their movements.

Lia had spent a great deal of time there when she was a student at Hogwarts, and had returned a handful of times as a teacher, but when she stepped into the valley, darkness fully enveloped her. The moon and stars disappeared and the tree line was no longer visible. She carefully walked up the highest hill, placing her feet carefully and stretching her arms out to feel for anything that might block her path. With only a few stumbles she stood upon the hill and turned every which way, trying to discern some shape or semblance of light. When she realized that she couldn't see the castle from where she stood, fear grabbed at her heart and she sat.

Lia allowed the fear and doubt to rage through her veins for a few minutes before forcing it into a small box in the back of her mind; she needed control right now, clarity, while she tried to imagine what had happened. She briefly thought that the world had gone dark but logic returned and she realized that it would take much more to blot out the stars than it would her eyes, the problem must be with her alone. She pulled out her wand and whispered 'Lumos', hoping in vain that she was wrong, but no light appeared at the tip of her wand, at least none that she could see. Sighing in frustration she breathed 'Nox' and stashed her wand back in her robes.

Growling her frustration, Lia stood and began pacing the hill, considering her options. She was sure that she could get back to the castle even without her eyesight; the path was well worn and she knew it well, and perhaps Madame Pomfrey, the school nurse, would have some concoction to assist her eyesight. The more she thought about it, the more logical it sounded and the more she was certain she was _not_ supposed to do it. A few times she had even stepped in the direction of the school but stopped short, instinct pulling her the other direction. Vaguely she thought she heard her name and was about to respond when she saw a single spot of light down the hill where she assumed the tree line to be.

Words of warning that she had heard from Arthur Weasley echoed in her mind, "_Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain!_" She was blind in the midst of one of the most dangerous forest in the known wizarding world. The Forbidden Forest was not just forbidden because of centaurs and spiders, there were parts of the forest unseen by human eyes for years, magical creatures that even Hagrid wouldn't be able to woo. There was deep, ancient magic at work in these woods and it seemed to be calling to Lia. Almost without thought Lia stepped towards the speck of light, her decision made.

_ Kicking wildly to get the hands off of her, Malicia's instincts finally kicked in and she was able to brush the many hands off and took off at a run. What on earth was happening? What vile creatures had their hands on her? Running as fast as she could, Malicia held an arm in front of her. The darkness was terrifying and while she was afraid of running into something or off of something, it seemed worth the risk. For some reason she had the very strong feeling that whatever was grabbing her in the darkness wanted to cause her terrible pain._

_ Instinct helped guide Malicia forward, but numerous footsteps let her know that the creatures were right behind her. A slimy hand grabbed at her wrist and caused her to stumble and nearly fall. Hopping awkwardly on one foot after she'd regained her balance, Malicia swung around and flailed violently as hard as she could, hoping that she would injure whatever was coming after her. Her fists hit something soft and squishy and it wailed horribly in response to her attack. Stumbling backwards, Malicia suddenly realized she had a way she could protect herself. Apparently she'd been spending way too much time with Lia for it to take her this long to realize she was a witch and had a wand._

_ Stopping short as the terrain beneath her changed, seemingly to grass from what Malicia could tell, she reached into her cloak for her wand. Breathing heavily, sweat making her hair stick to her skin and the phantom feeling of slimy and hairy hands on her skin made her gag as she groped through her cloak in search of her wand._

_ "Where is it?" Malicia was panicked. She had never gone anywhere without her wand since she'd gotten it from Ollivanders as a child. Why would she go into a dangerous situation without it? In her panic the creatures in the darkness had caught up to her and tackled her to the ground. With an 'oof' Malicia turned on her back and kicked at the creatures. Her vivid imagination was coming up with all sorts of horrific visions of what could be climbing over her. Kicking wildly, Malicia turned on her stomach and attempted to get to her feet._

_ The hands grabbed at her cloak and tore it away. Thankfully this gave Malicia the moment she needed to get ahead of the creatures pursuing her. Forward she ran, zigzagging occasionally just to throw the monsters off of her trail. The ground started to change beneath her; the grass was accompanied by logs and rocks. Eventually she found herself on a hill and lost her balance. She tumbled forward, her sleeve catching on something that she guessed was the branch of a tree and scraping at her skin. Wincing, Malicia covered her head and finally came to a stop, leaning against something large and hard. It was a tree, she discovered as she brushed her fingers over the bark._

_ Head still spinning and having temporarily seen stars in her vision thanks to having smashed into the tree, Malicia used it to get back to her feet. The bark of the tree was dry and cracking. It seemed the forest she'd found her way into was as dry and depressing as the desert outside of it had seemed._

_ Just as she was about to find her way around the tree and down the hill, something slammed her back into the tree. Hands were on her again, pulling at her hair, touching at her skin. They found their way down to the cut on her arm and seemed drawn toward the blood that was dripping far too freely over her skin._

_ Crying out in misery, Malicia elbowed and kicked the monsters away then started blindly down the hill, hoping she wouldn't lose her footing again in the confusion. She was starting to lose steam. Between the dizziness caused from running into the tree and the blood loss from her unnaturally severe wound, she wasn't sure how much longer she could continue._

_ Tears welled in her eyes, but it wasn't like it would matter or obstruct her vision. They were mostly of frustration and annoyance. How was she supposed to get away from something so hopeless? Moving carefully forwards she felt something rush by her. Was it another creature? If so then why hadn't it come after her? Perhaps there were more than just monsters lurking in the forest. Then in the distance she saw something that made her stop short._

_ In front of her, still pretty far away, there was the silhouette of something. From what she could guess, it was a tree. It was a peculiar silhouette, surrounded in a thin line of light, like someone was holding their illuminated wand right behind it. Malicia knew that this had to be where she supposed to be going. Watching her footing as she continued downhill and dodging the hands of the creatures that pursued her, Malicia felt renewed. She'd found hope when hope had seemed impossible._

Lia's ears sharpened with her lack of sight, but so did her sense of pain. Without being able to see what was hitting her, each cut seemed worse than it was, each branch that grabbed at her robes felt stronger and more malevolent than it would be under normal circumstances. She was clearly in a part of the forest uninhabited by the semi-tamed creatures known by those at the castle; there appeared to be no trail as Lia stumbled over roots and fallen branches and as dried bushes and thorns grabbed at her as she passed. The lights continued to appear intermittently to keep Lia on track, but each seemed to pierce through her eyes making her dizzy and disoriented. After some time Lia heard scuffling around her; something new was in the darkness.

As she stepped cautiously through the trees, Lia heard her name called clearly from behind her. She turned sharply to the voice, forgetting for a moment that she wouldn't be able to see the person who called her, and hit her head on a low-hanging branch. Falling to the ground, Lia lay still for a few minutes, hoping the pain in her head would lessen if she didn't move too much. Carefully she touched her temple and winced in pain as her fingers grazed the wound and were coated in warm, sticky blood. "What the crap?" she yelled, venting her frustration as she lay in a tangle of roots and bushes, tired, confused, and in pain. Again she heard her name being called, but thought it was in her head.

As she was considering moving, a foul smell caught on the breeze and she heard heavy footfalls around her. In a matter of moments she felt the hot breath of a large animal that was leaning over her, smelling the blood blossoming from her head. She slowly moved her hand, reaching into her robes for her wand, but before her fingers could find it, a spell whizzed past her head, knocking the mysterious creature to the ground. Lia heard it growl in protest as it struggled to rise and felt human hands grab her arm and shoulder, lifting her up and pulling her back towards the castle. "Lia, I don't know what you're doing out here but we've got to go!" The voice was male and sounded vaguely familiar to Lia, but she assumed she was confused because of the blow to her head. She was about to respond when another light appeared a few yards away from her.

"I can't go yet." She said vaguely, pulling her arm free and stumbling forward once more. The man behind her cursed but she heard his footsteps as he continued to follow her deeper into the forest.

_ Losing her footing on the hill, Malicia let gravity take control and rolled down the rest of the way, protecting her head. Grass and sticks caught in her clothing and hair but when she finally stopped, she'd landed on her back unscathed other than a few minor scratches. Her arm was still bleeding horribly, but she didn't exactly have time to take care of it and it wasn't like she could see it properly if she had the time anyway._

_ Sitting up and hurrying to her feet, stumbling once or twice thanks to how much like jelly her legs felt from running for what felt like an hour, Malicia continued toward the silhouette of the tree that seemed much closer than it had been before. Falling down the hill had been a blessing in disguise. It had given her distance from the creatures and had gotten her closer to her goal without straining her body too much._

_ As she approached the tree, the light on the other side of it seemed to grow brighter. She could see the limbs of the tree outstretched and gnarled. It would've looked haunting if it hadn't been the only symbol of hope Malicia had in her nightmare. Rounding the tree so she could find the source of the light, Malicia shrieked when something flew in front of her. Ducking low to dodge the creature, Malicia turned to glance behind her and wished immediately that she hadn't._

_ The creatures pursuing her had gained on her. She stood still in shock, mouth agape at what she saw. Bug like limbs, some dripping ooze and some covered in scattered patches of prickly fur met her gaze. They stood upright, on two limbs like people did, but some had wings and most had exoskeletons. The best description Malicia could think of was that they were some sort of bug and human hybrid. Suddenly the light coming from the tree seemed more like a curse. It had been bad enough when her imagination ran wild trying to create an image in her mind's eye for the monsters that haunted her, but now that she'd seen the reality of them it was worse than she could've ever imagined._

_ Hands shaking, Malicia stepped backwards and started again toward the tree but the creatures had caught up with her. They were grabbing at her, snarling and drooling as they tried to pull her away from the light on the other side of the tree. There was only so much she could struggle before she started to get pulled back and away._

_ "No!" Crying out in frustration, Malicia dug her heels into the ground and forced herself forward. Hands tore at her but left no marks. Her gag reflex kicked in again from the feel of slime. Managing her way around the tree, and barely at that, Malicia stared in awe for only a second at the sight that beheld her. The shadow of the tree was exactly the opposite of that. Where darkness should've fallen from its boughs, a blinding white light shone instead. Momentarily, Malicia was struck by its beauty._

As Lia walked she noticed the floor became less congested with branches and rocks, she stumbled less in the darkness, and where there was one light, now there were many. They began to move, chasing each other in the darkness, multiplying and flying in her mind's eye, captivating her. She stood mesmerized as they circled around her, pulling her forward to join their dance. The man who followed her was calling out a warning, but she paid no attention as the lights formed the shape of an old, barren tree. Some of them circled her arm, bringing it up in front of her as she neared the tree, every fiber of her wanting to feel the strong bark beneath her fingers.

"Lia! Move! It's a minotaur!" the man yelled as he saw the beast that he had attacked in the forest charge her, his head down and his horns sharp. The creature ran at Lia as her hand brushed the tree and the shape of a key appeared. With the force of a freight train, the minotaur rammed into Lia, pinning her against the tree between its horns. Hitting her head against the trunk of the tree, light flooded her eyes and she was once more aware of the pain in her body.

_ Somehow she knew she had to get to the tree. Struggling against the hands that attempted to bind her, Malicia dove into the shadow of light. Reaching the base of the tree, she grabbed onto the roots and hoped the nightmare would end. Instead it continued on. The clacking of pincers, dripping of fleshy ooze, and skittering of unnatural legs got louder and louder. Turning onto her back and leaning against the tree, Malicia stared at the tens of creatures in front of her. There was no escape. It would be only seconds before the creatures finally took hold of her._

_ Coming to peace with captivity, Malicia closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She waited for the hands to grab her and drag her away from the tree, heart still pumping with adrenaline. When the blows never came, Malicia cracked one eye open and peered around. The monsters were gone entirely. Sitting bolt upright, she glanced around her surroundings that had completely changed. _

_ Above her the sky was a brilliant and beautiful blue. Birds were chirping and flying past beneath fluffy white clouds. The tree above her was waving its lovely branches in the wind. It was a weeping willow, one of Malicia's favorite trees. The grass beneath her was plush and all around flowers were scattered in bunches. Malicia couldn't help but laugh. Pushing her now incredibly messy hair out of her face, she turned around to look at the tree._

_ A tiny glimmer of silver light caught her eye at the base of the tree. Kneeling down to get a better look at it, Malicia leapt backwards when the light shot up through the tree, burning a pattern into the bark. Darting right then downward and then back to the left, Malicia watched in awe as the light carved shapes into the tree._

_ When the glimmer finally faded, the shape of a door was left in the bark of the tree. Getting to her feet, Malicia stepped cautiously closer to the trunk, waiting for it to snap out and bite her or worse; to start smashing at her with its limbs like Hogwarts' famous Whomping Willow. As her fingers brushed against the door, a rush of wind came from the boughs above._

"It's a minotaur!" Lia heard the warning echo in her mind as her thoughts swam and feelings and sensations returned to her at last. The pale, yellow lights disappeared in a blinding flash and the moon and stars were back in the heavens where they belonged. Lia struggled to move and found herself pinned to the beautiful tree by two shiny, sharp horns. Wiggling until she turned, she saw the rest of the minotaur and fear once more gripped her. Without thinking she took the key that appeared in the bark of the tree and jabbed it in the exposed neck of the creature. It stiffened for a moment before dissolving into dust and Lia slid down the trunk of the tree, holding onto the key for dear life.

Malicia fluttered her eyes open and was surprised to be back in her room, but nowhere near her bed. She'd fallen off of it at some point and was lying face down on the floor near the window. Groaning in misery she reached up to rub her head and winced when she moved her arm. Rolling onto her back she stared at the ceiling and exhaled. It had been her first experience on the very long road she'd started before coming to Hogwarts and she'd survived. But if every bit of the path she was on was as stressful and painful as that had been, would she manage?

Looking down at her arm she saw the long scratch from her dream. It wasn't gushing blood the way that it had been in her nightmare but it was scraped and caked with dry blood. Slowly Malicia sat up and brushed her fingers over the sensitive wound on her arm. It wasn't deep enough to require attention so she decided to instead clean it up and try to get some real rest. Even though she'd been sleeping for a while, she felt like she'd been running for hours.

As she got to her feet and stumbled sleepily toward her bed sudden pain in her back made her lose her footing. She grabbed onto the plush comforter and bit her lip to keep from crying in misery. It felt like something was digging into her flesh or burning it. It went on for a few agonizing moments before the pain finally relented. Malicia lay stunned, half on her bed and waiting for something else to happen. When nothing else came to harm her, she cautiously stood up. Her shirt was sticking to her back and she was sure it was because of blood.

Walking into her personal washroom, she discarded her cloak on the floor and pulled her shirt down far enough to try and see the cause. From what she could see, it looked like someone had taken a small knife and carved into her skin. There was some sort of pattern made, just as it had been made in the tree in her dream. In fact, it looked a lot to her like the branches of the tree that had offered her salvation.

Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Malicia reminded herself that she would have to expect the unexpected. The Staff of Dreams would require great sacrifice and struggle in order to be obtained safely. Now that it'd begun there was no turning back, she could only hope that Lia was okay.

Malicia raced down the stairs, ignoring the pain in her back. Lia had not been in her office or in the Great Hall and she was becoming worried. As she took the last few steps to the entrance hall, the doors opened the same tall figure with curly hair that she had seen disappear only a few hours ago came in the doors carrying a barely conscious Lia in his arms. She was about to ask what happened when she realized that she recognized the man who bore her friend. "Teddy Jameson?" she asked as she skidded to a halt before them.

The Potions Master glowered at the use of that name and nodded his head stiffly at his old classmate, "Theodore." He corrected. "Good evening, Malicia. Excuse me; I need to get Lia to Madame Pomfrey." Malicia followed the pair up the stairs and into the hospital wing and got Madame Pomfrey's attention as Theodore laid Lia gently on a free bed.

Madame Pomfrey was an older woman when the three were students at Hogwarts and the years had not left her alone. She tottered out of her office and glanced at the three before rolling her eyes, "I should have known." She said as she made her way toward Lia to assess her wounds. "Not one full week and already you're knocking on my door at all hours of the night." She mumbled, though a hint of affection could be seen in her eyes.

Lia stirred and her eyes immediately found Malicia. "Mal, it was crazy!" she said wearily. She was about to launch into the exciting tale that caused her wounds when she saw Theodore standing to one side, half hidden in the shadows. "Teddy?" she asked, clearly confused. Malicia noticed that he did not bother to correct her. She turned back to Malicia and then Madame Pomfrey, "Okay, wait, what year is it?"

Malicia laughed and patted her friend's arm fondly, "You're fine." She said comfortingly, keeping the guilt that she felt well hidden. "Your 'Teddy' here is the new Potions Master."

After a quick assessment, Madame Pomfrey shooed Malicia and Theodore out of the room, insisting that Lia needed rest for her wounds. Once the doors were securely closed, Madame Pomfrey turned out the lights and said goodnight to her lone ward. Grateful to be alone, Lia thought about what had happened and pulled the wooden key from beneath her blanket to get a better look. It was beautifully crafted, she could tell immediately that whoever formed the key had given a great deal of thought into its design and spent a good deal of time whittling it to its current form. When inspecting the key gave no further answers to her strange adventure, she carefully tucked it away in the folds of her robes for safe keeping. She was just about to attempt to sleep when she heard a soft creak come from the door and saw a single beam of light bob towards her. Momentarily she thought she was back in the forest, but reality returned as Theodore Jameson conjured a chair next to her bed.

"You going to tell me what that was all about?" he asked, looking at her intently, inspecting every wound, though he knew Madame Pomfrey had taken care of them all.

Lia wiggled in her bed until she was sitting up and facing her old friend, "You first. The fall term started a week ago and you just now show up? What's going on? Where have you been? Why do you insist upon not returning owls?" she demanded in a whisper; neither was keen on waking the nurse.

Theodore looked slightly ashamed as she listed her questions and sighed, "I was…traveling." He said, refusing to meet her eyes. Lia glared at him until he shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Look, you remember what it was like after I graduated. I was a Slytherin and Professor Snape's favorite, outside of Malfoy, and everyone knew it. Then he had to go and kill Dumbledore." Theodore shook his head, "That was it for me, I could either join the Death Eaters or leave; no one would give me a job, no one would trust that I wasn't all twisted like the rest of them. I had to get out if I wanted to get by. I found a job across the pond in Canada, believe it or not, and worked there at an apothecary."

"Okay, but Snape was only evil for like, two years, then he was a hero!" Lia insisted. "I don't even remember seeing you at the battle of Hogwarts."

"I was on the Death Eater's side." Lia's mouth dropped open and she punched him. "Not fighting with them!" he said defensively, rubbing his shoulder. "I went over there to try to get information, they trusted me because I was a Slytherin. When the fighting started I attacked from their side, taking down who I could, trying to keep them from killing so many students. No one knew I was there."

"I tried to send you letters, you know." Lia said after a few minutes of silence. "My birds could never find you."

"I moved around a lot." He shrugged. "I didn't want to come back to England so I just…went from town to town. If I liked a place I'd stay for a while, but once owls showed up I would move again. I didn't want to be found."

"Then why'd you come back at all?" She asked, clearly annoyed at his running for twenty years.

"Minerva sent Dumbledore after me." Lia gave him a confused look. "It was right after the dreams started a few weeks ago. Do you remember my rather ridiculous Chocolate Frog Card collection?" She nodded. "Well, McGonagall sent Dumbledore to look for me through the cards."

"You still have them?" Lia couldn't help but smirk.

Theodore ignored the jab, "Professor Dumbledore gave me a thorough talking to and told me to find a fire and get in touch with Minerva immediately. I never could say 'no' to that man."

"No one could."

"So, I called her and she offered me the job, told me what was going on, and here I am." He summed up.

"But where have you been hiding all week?" she insisted. "I've been all over this castle with Malicia and we hadn't any idea you were here!"

"I'm not used to being inside anymore." He explained. "I've got an office and everything here, and I stay there sometimes, but I prefer to be out on the grounds. That's why I was in the forest tonight, but now it's your turn. What happened today?"

Lia debated on what to tell Theodore. How could she explain to him something that she herself didn't understand? Briefly the key flashed in her mind but she pushed it away. Until she knew more she wasn't going to tell anyone what she had found. That key was special, precious in its own way, and no one should know about it yet. "I was going to talk to the centaurs." She began honestly enough. "I don't know exactly what happened after that, I was in the Gazing Vale to send them a message and suddenly I couldn't see anything. I just…started walking." She ended, hoping he didn't question her anymore on the matter. She couldn't explain the mysterious lights that led her to that tree, or how a minotaur could turn to dust by the use of a simple, wooden key. She knew there was something more going on, but she had to figure out what it was herself; whatever was going on, she knew that it would be better if no one knew.

Theodore watched her face closely as she recounted her tale. He knew that she wasn't telling him everything, but he hadn't told her everything either. "Well, it seems that no matter where we go, we always seem to end up here, don't we?" He only vaguely meant the hospital wing and met Lia's hazel eyes for the first time in nearly twenty years.

Smiling, she rested her hand on his arm, "I missed you, y'know."

He placed his hand on hers and was about to respond when a bedpan hit him sharply on the back of the head. "I said, she needed rest!" Madame Pomfrey stormed out of her office with her wand raised. "Now out!"

Grinning sheepishly he stood, "Goodnight, Lia."

Lia giggled at the bed pan floating above him threateningly, "Goodnight Teddy." He turned and headed for the double doors. "I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" she called after him. "You aren't going to run off again, right?"

He turned and smiled, Lia thought she saw a slight blush to his cheeks but dismissed it as a trick of the light, "I'll be here to take you to breakfast."

"Out!" Madame Pomfrey yelled as the bed pan smacked his head once more.

Lia laughed before obediently laying still in her bed. This was turning out to be an interesting year, even by Hogwarts' standards.


	4. Burning Books

Ron Weasley had never been fond of the morning hours in his youth and that hadn't changed much in his later years. That was, of course, unless he was off to a Quidditch game with his family. But where work was concerned, Ron was still struggling to find his motivation as he stumbled out of his house with a wave to his brother who had come by to babysit his kids while he was called to arms. Harry had sent him an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic, asking him to join him at the scene of some crime.

With half a piece of buttered toast hanging out of his mouth, Ron apparated with a loud 'pop' sound and away from his comfortable home. What he arrived to see made his jaw drop and the piece of toast fall to the floor.

In front of him was a tall and familiar building set ablaze. The smoke was so thick he instantly started coughing from having kept his mouth hanging open for too long. He recognized the building as one of his wife's favorite hang outs. The sign that usually read Wenlock's Wizarding Menagerie was nowhere to be found and was presumed to be caught up in the brilliant flames before him. Wizards were moving left and right, flying on their brooms in an attempt to magically put out the fires but from what Ron could see, the flame seemed to fight back and even bite at those attempting to put it out.

"What the bloody hell…" Ron muttered, still staring in awe of the burning building. His job as an Auror had been rather uninteresting in the previous weeks and this was by far the most peculiar case he'd been on in years. Of course, there had been fires prior to this but none that _he'd_ been called in on.

"I told you it was important." Harry, a five o' clock shadow on his face and bags under his eyes walked up alongside his old friend.

"You didn't say the place was burning down. I thought this was a break in!" Ron grumbled and then started toward the fire, taking his wand out of his cloak.

"Is that why you took your time?" Harry didn't sound angry, but rather just as tired as his friend was. It looked like neither one of them had been sleeping well since they'd had their nightmares involving the school founders. Sleeplessness had become a curse that they'd had to suffer nearly every day. Waking up at all hours of the night to be called to duty as an Auror hadn't much helped either.

"You didn't say it was urgent and I was hungry. The kids don't like when I leave at the early hours. You know I need to contact George ahead of time and he's _rarely_ on time."

"I was just giving you a hard time." Harry offered a haggard smile then turned back to the blaze. As Ron pulled out his wand to assist in the inferno, Harry grabbed his arm to stop him and signaled for him to put it down. "Best leave that to the professionals, Ron, the fire's bewitched."

"So you think whoever broke into the place set it on fire afterward, do you?" Ron spoke the obvious, as he often did at crime scenes. It was his subtle way of asking Harry what his thoughts were on the matter at hand. Since Harry had a habit of being more punctual than his friend considering his wife was always at home with their kids during the night hours, he often had enough time to search the scene of a crime before Ron would even show up. And it wasn't that they were ever put on cases together, it had simply become common knowledge at the Ministry of Magic that if Harry Potter were sent out on a case, he'd likely call Ron Weasley to help him. Since then, it'd become common knowledge that they were unspoken partners. While they very rarely got cases important enough to tag team, they always enjoyed it when they got to.

"It seems that way. Magical fires, as a general rule, don't start themselves conveniently after a break in." Harry watched as the wizards and witches flying around the fire started to take control of the spell and douse the flames as he predicted they would. He and Ron had very little experience dealing with it and would've likely only added water damage to the list of things wrong with the once beautiful building.

"It would be a pretty handy security system though, you've got to admit." Ron got the chills as he considered telling Hermione about what had happened to her precious library.

"Well, minus the fact that you'd destroy your stuff in the process." Harry chuckled.

"So what did I miss?"

"Around three in the morning the Ministry received an urgent owl from the owner of this building, one Jaime Fairfax with reports that someone had broken into the downstairs of his building. It's a historical place, we just gave it the approval to be considered such after proof had been provided that the Founders had once set up shop there in their designs of Hogwarts." Harry gave a knowing look toward Ron, but Ron didn't seem surprised. This surprised Harry greatly.

"Wenlock's Wizarding Menagerie." Ron chimed in. "Named after Bridget Wenlock, one of the most famous Arithmancers in history. She was the very first to establish the various magical properties of the number seven, wasn't she? You know I always expected this place to be a zoo given its name but go figure it'd be a _library_."

Harry simply stared at his friend in surprise. Usually he spent a good chunk of the beginning of their investigations explaining the history of things to Ron. It had never been one of his best subjects and rarely interested him even during the more humorous investigations. It wasn't that Ron was dense by any stretch of the word, he just didn't have much interest in history. So since Ron was putting Harry in his place for once in such a manner, Harry was incredibly shocked.

"Hermione loves it here." Ron tried to explain, looking sheepish. "Really looks up to Wenlock, you know? She's gonna be sad this place is gone. After the first fifty times of her telling me all about the history I guess bits of managed to sink in while I was fantasizing about Quidditch." A shy smile crossed Ron's face. Harry nodded in understanding. It was no wonder that Ron had known so much about it. His guess was that Hermione would know even more, considering her occupation at Hogwarts being the Arithmancy professor. Harry had never been fond of the subject, but he was willing to learn a bit about it if it shed some light on their case.

In front of them the fire in the building had finally ceased minus one or two sparks of flame resisting the magical extinguishing by the Ministry wizards who had come to assist. All that remained of the building in front of them was the charred skeleton of what once had been. The frame of the building was intact, even some bits of the second floor seemed manageable but it was obvious that almost all the clues that would've been left behind by a robber had been destroyed by the fire.

"By the time I had alerted you and arrived on the scene in hopes of catching the thief in the act and helping out poor old Jaime, the fire had started. When I opened the front door I was nearly engulfed in the flames. Luckily my reflexes seem to still be pretty decent."

"That reminds me, are we still on for Quidditch this weekend? With half the kids gone and Hermione at school I've found myself with loads more free time than I can handle…" Ron drifted off when Harry shot him a look that told him to stay on task. "Right, fire."

"Unfortunately I couldn't put out the fire so I called for backup."

"Well it's only nearly four now, it didn't take very long for that fire to eat away the building, now did it?" Ron grimaced, glancing around at the charred remains.

"My guess is whoever broke into the library didn't want us to find out what they were looking for." Harry started toward the building once one of the ministry wizards gave him the all clear to let him know it was safe to start investigating the fire.

"Do you think," Ron lowered his voice substantially, following Harry into the blackened doorway, "that this has anything to do with those weird dreams we had a few weeks back. You said it was just approved for historical status because of something to do with the Founders right? That can't be a coincidence." Harry pointed to his nose to let Ron know he was well on track with what he was considering. Harry had made the elderly Minster of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, know of what his suspicions were but they had decided to keep their suspicions under wraps. If they caused a ruckus over nothing, it'd be another Ministry flop. Considering Shacklebolt was on his way out, it would be something else for his competitors to use against him.

Continuing quietly through the burnt house, the two observed what was around them. There was little left, and considering the amount of books that had once been on the shelves the place looked deserted. Hopefully with a bit of clean up and reconstruction, Harry could find out what the thieves were after and if they managed to get their hands on it.

"Harry, you better take a look at this. "Ron stopped suddenly in the hallway near the staircase, his usually pinkish face drained of all color. Joining his friend a few steps back in the hall, Harry peered past Ron to see what his friend had discovered. Sighing heavily, his heart sinking Harry turned back into the hall. The owner of the library was on the floor, dead, but barely burned so he was easily recognized. For some reason, that room in particular seemed to be in decent shape, as opposed to the rest of the building that had been nearly destroyed.

"Whatever that thief wanted, he was willing to kill for it." Harry grimaced.

"Or she."

"You've spent way too much time with Hermione." A small smile crossed across Harry's face as he patted Ron on the back. "Come on, we've got to get the coroners in here to come and take a look at Mr. Fairfax. Maybe we can figure out who killed him and how if nothing else."

"Do you think we'll be able to figure out what they were coming after?"

"That's what I'm hoping. It's going to take a lot of digging." Harry started down the hall and back toward the front door of the building. As they reached the crowd of Ministry wizards awaiting their judgment, Harry felt his stomach drop again. He'd seen too much death in his short life and every time he saw more he felt strangely numbed by it. Ron was still pale as a ghost. Both were considering heading to Hogwarts simply to hug their kids, even if it was frowned upon for them to visit unannounced.

Harry shook his head in a negative response. The ministry wizards hung their heads in disappointment. A handful of them apparated away to go get the appropriate team they were hoping they didn't have to call in.

"Hey Ron."

"Hmm?"

"About this weekend? I'll be there. I'll bring Ginny too, alright?"

"That would be great." Ron smiled for a moment before the grim look returned to his face. Sometimes, it took seeing how fragile life was to remind them how important the little things were. Harry's mind was reeling. He'd have to update McGonagall on the situation as soon as he could without drawing attention to his actions. While he had no proof the dreams and the fire were related, his gut was telling him there was something more there. And if there had been one thing Harry Potter had learned from his adventures, it was that trusting his gut was always a safe bet.

The weeks following Malicia's first dream and Lia's bizarre attack seemed remarkably uneventful, at least as uneventful as Hogwarts could be. Malicia's classes continued to be the most popular class in the school, with students trying to convince her to do extra lessons for the rest of the school during free periods. She had told no one of her dream or about the scar shaped like a willow tree on her back. Lia had a glorious time manipulating the new Potions Master into being more social and spending time with the other teachers.

He grudgingly joined the staff table in the Great Hall for meals and spent what free time they had trailing after Lia and Malicia as they pursued their antics around the castle. The older teachers rolled their eyes as the two girls giggled and joked their way through the halls and Theodore followed silently, occasionally sending apologetic glances when necessary. Even the students had come to expect the occasional practical jokes the professors would play in their classes, sometimes on each other, sometimes on the students. Even Peeves was beginning to think they were worthy enough for him to be around; wherever they were, chaos was sure to follow soon, and he _really_ enjoyed chaos.

September grew cold and rainy as it came to a close and soon it was time for the first quidditch match of the season. Quidditch was the sport of wizards; played with three types of balls: snitches, quaffles, and bludgers. There were seven players on each team: chasers, beaters, a keeper, and a seeker. The chasers tossed the quaffle to each other in mid-air and tried to get it into one of the three hoops on their end of the field that the keeper was guarding. The beaters swung their bats at the bludgers as they flew wildly around the playing field trying to knock players off their brooms.

The seeker spent the game flying around in search of the tiny, golden snitch. Each goal scored with the quaffle was worth ten points while the team's seeker that caught the snitch earned 150 points and ended the game. Usually the team that caught the snitch won the game, but that was not always the case. Though many students from different houses intermingled and became friends, no one could pretend to ignore the competitive atmosphere of a good game of quidditch; tension filled the hallways as students chose sides for the first match between Huffelpuff and Slytherin.

Saturday was cold and rainy, as the rest of the week had been, but there was no weather that would keep the wizards and witches of Hogwarts away from their favorite game, so as eleven o'clock rolled around students wearing silver and green for Slytherin or yellow and black for Huffelpuff flooded out of the castle to the quidditch pitch.

Theodore leaned impatiently against the wall between Lia and Malicia's offices while he waited for the girls to appear. As per their usual, they were running late, supposedly trying to finish a few last minute things for the morning, but he suspected it was more to drive him insane. They knew he hated being late for anything. He was just considering leaving without them when Malicia finally came out of her office, "Where's Lia?" she asked, adjusting her silver and black scarf. Theodore nodded towards her office door. Malicia rolled her eyes and banged on the closed door, "Lia c'mon! We're going to miss the kick off!" she yelled.

Lia opened the door and smiled at her two frustrated friends, "Okay, let's go." She said brightly, leading the way down the stairs. The two girls chatted and laughed as they made their way down toward the entrance hall, excited to be back in the midst of school during quidditch season. Both of the girls had been on their house teams when they were in school, Lia had been beater for Ravenclaw and Malicia had played keeper for Slytherin; both greatly enjoyed playing for the school teams and both were still pretty good. They made their way to the third floor before Lia stopped suddenly, causing Malicia to stumble and Theodore to fall backwards to keep from knocking into the girls, landing him on a false step that made him sink to his knees. "I forgot my rosette!" she exclaimed as if the world would end without the colorful flower pinned to her robes.

"Of course you did." Malicia said as she stepped up to help Theodore out of the step, Lia followed suit but it took a little while to get their tall friend released. Theodore glared at Lia as he rubbed his sore knees; it was not the first time in their friendship that she had caused him to fall, slip, or tumble in or down the stairs of Hogwarts. In fact, it had been a common occurrence during their school days.

Lia grinned apologetically, "I'm sorry guys, but I promised Frank I'd wear it today, he is a chaser after all." She explained. Neither of her friends looked happy at the prospect of being even later to the game than they already were. "Look, you guys go ahead, I'll just run up there and grab it and meet you at the pitch."

Malicia sighed, "No, I'll wait for you here, you go and get it."

Lia started running up the stairs and Theodore turned to follow, "Wait up, I need to work out this kink I have in my knee now." He complained, a flicker of a smirk hanging on the corners of his mouth. Malicia grinned and shook her head as she watched the two go up the stairs together just as they always had, Lia leading the charge and Theodore following just a step or two behind.

As Lia and Theodore rounded the corner that led to Lia's office, they thought they heard noises from down the hall. Other than thinking it odd that there were people not down at the field yet, neither Lia nor Theodore thought much about what they'd heard until they got closer to her office and saw the door ajar and the lights flickering inside. "It's probably just a student." Lia whispered, grasping her wand from the folds of her robe. Something about the situation didn't feel right despite her insistence that the person within her office was likely just a student.

"I'm sure it is." Theodore agreed as he stepped protectively in front of Lia, his wand held steady in his hand.

"We're probably going to scare the crap out of someone." She said, her voice even quieter as they neared the door.

"In that case, maybe it's Mrs. Norris," Theodore spoke coolly, his voice even quieter than Lia's, "I've always wondered how that cat managed to live this long."

Lia grinned at her friend's dry humor, his quiet strength calming her nerves. When they reached the office both of them stepped into the room with their wands drawn hoping to catch whatever intruder within off guard.

Lia's once carefully arranged office was now in tatters. Books, rolls of parchment, drawers and their contents were scattered throughout the room helter-skelter. Her desk had been turned completely over; even the muggle contraptions that she treasured had been shattered, blown off of their shelves and onto the floor. Lia let a string of incredibly unladylike curses slip from her mouth as they took in the ransacked mess. It was clear that whoever had broken into her office was no longer present. They were about to start picking things up to see if anything had been taken when they heard a crash from her living quarters upstairs.

They both started toward the small staircase and the far end of the room, Lia taking the lead this time. She was about to take the first step onto the staircase when the bedroom door burst into pieces and a shadow jumped from the landing to the office floor. Theodore shot a stunning spell at the shape but it was simply absorbed into the swirling shadows that surrounded the intruder. The lights in the room were flickering and the air was getting thinner, as everything that wasn't solid seemed to be pulled in to keep the stranger covered. Stashing her wand in her cloak, Lia picked up an old muggle rotary telephone she kept with her and threw it at the prowler; with the aim of a superb beater she hit her mark square in the head, causing him to stumble and his spell to falter. The air in the room became breathable once more. In the second it took Lia and Theodore to catch their breath, the man had disappeared through the door. Both friends waited two whole heart beats to catch their breath before chasing after him.

Malicia stood impatiently on the stairs between the third and fourth floor, near the false step and waited for Lia and Theodore to return from their excursion. How long did it take to retrieve a rosette? Really, if she missed the entire match because of her friend then Lia was in for the longest week of pranks she'd ever experienced. Quidditch had been her school sweetheart, as far as Malicia had concerned. She ate, slept and breathed the sport. It had been one of the biggest thing she'd missed after leaving school. It was often that she took part in local games wherever she'd been staying. Luna had been terrible at the sport but had done the best she could though she'd never gotten the hang of it.

A loud bang from up the stairs, from the offices echoed through the spacious Grand Staircase. Staring in surprise and waiting for a sound to follow it up, Malicia whipped her wand out from beneath her cape cautiously. Strange things tended to happen at Hogwarts, and in her line of work, Malicia had learned that one could never be too cautious. Cautiously stepping over the false step in the staircase, Malicia crept toward the floor above her. While there hadn't been any other suspicious sounds to lead her to believe something nefarious was afoot, her gut was telling her to be on her guard and in her many years of exploring her gut had very rarely been wrong.

"Lia? Theodore?" Malicia called when she heard footsteps on the fourth floor corridor. The only other people who would likely remain within the building would be the caretaker, Filch, and other professors who were too busy or uninterested in the game going on outside of the castle. Stopping near the top of the staircase she continued to listen, glancing upward. Lights were flickering on the floors above, unnaturally. "Teddy?" When no snide remark or retort came after her calling the Potions Master the nickname that Lia had reserved for him, Malicia knew Theodore and Lia were not within earshot.

Footsteps echoed down the hall behind her, forcing Malicia to snap to attention. Jumping over the last few steps onto the fourth floor landing, Malicia turned and looked down the various hallways branching off in either direction.

She scanned the hall for shadows then heard a sudden clamber of footsteps overhead, then the familiar sound of spells firing all about. The portraits hung on the wall were all whispering about what's going on.

"Young lady!" A wizened old wizard drew her attention and then pointed down the western hall. "I do believe he went that way! A young man, enraptured in shadow and he was heading right toward our library. There was a nefarious look about him if I might add. If you hurry you can catch up."

"Find Filch, spread the word through portraits that there are intruders within the school!" Malicia knew that if she was wrong then chaos would be caused amongst the students for no reason and she would look the fool but was willing to risk being wrong in case she was, well, right. Whatever was happening upstairs would have to wait. Malicia trusted that Lia and Theodore were skilled wizards and would handle whatever trouble came their way. And if nothing else, she knew that Theodore was still the sad little puppy dog following Lia around longingly as he had always been and would throw himself in the way of danger for her in any situation.

Racing down the western fourth floor corridor, Malicia kept her wand out and her wits about her. Why was someone darting through the school in shadow? When she rounded the corner near the entrance of the library she caught the tail end of a black cloak as it made its way through the library's entryway. Of all the ridiculous places to hide in Hogwarts, who would choose the library?

Then again, perhaps they were searching for something _within_ the Restricted Section. There were many powerful and mysterious books, filled with secrets that even the library's curator Madam Pince was unaware of, though she would argue the contrary. Malicia slowed her walk cautiously through the bookshelves of the deserted library. Even Madam Pince had gone out to the Quidditch pitch to watch the first match of the season. Whoever had broken into Hogwarts had picked the perfect time. If Lia hadn't forgotten her rosette they likely would've gone unnoticed.

Past bookshelf after bookshelf, Malicia peeked through carefully around each corner as not to be ambushed. At the last row of books before the doors to the restricted section, Malicia caught the shadow turn near the far window. Hurrying down the tower of books, she hurried around the corner and fired a stunning spell as she saw a shadow dart through the rows, along the windows and then duck toward the tables left out for students to study on.

Yelping in surprise, she ducked in between bookshelves to avoid a spell returned to her. Hurrying to the middle of the extensive line of shelves she ran toward the front of the library, wand at the ready to dodge or block any spells that came her way. When none came she crept further, just in time to see the same cloaked figure dart out of the library and down the hallway. Before she could pursue him, he turned and shot a spell her way. Malicia tried to see the face of the intruder, but it was shrouded in the darkness of his cloak. Artfully blocking the spell it ricocheted and hit the bookshelf behind her, knocking nearly all of the books onto the floor with a loud crash. Yelping in surprise, Malicia leapt out of the way of the falling books and immediately ran after her attacker.

"Stop! You can't escape, the whole of Hogwarts will be after you!" Malicia yelled as she gave chase down the hall and through the corridors. They ran up a set of stairs which gave Malicia a slight advantage since she was clearly far more familiar with the school than the intruder was and he happened to stumble on the last few stairs.

Firing another stunning spell, the man was forced to duck and swerve in order to dodge it. Malicia managed to catch up to him in this time and grabbed a fistful of his cloak. Pulling hard on it the top of it fell. The intruder turned to glance at Malicia and she got a quick glimpse of his face before he pulled his cloak back up and darted down the hall again. Malicia stumbled and stopped running momentarily. The face was familiar, but the man's long black hair had shrouded little other than his blue eyes and it had been hard to tell. Truly he could've been anyone. For all she knew his true face was still hidden beneath whatever magical disguise he wore.

Coming back to reality quickly, Malicia continued after the intruder, her mind racing. She followed him up a staircase and onto the fifth floor, her mind reeling to find answers to the recognition she felt upon seeing him.

Lia and Theodore wasted no time rushing after the intruder who threw careless spells over his shoulder. Suits of armor clattered to the ground, colored banners hanging on the wall flew across the hall and attempted to block their path.

"Diffindo!" Lia's magic slashed through the colored banners in her way and she ducked under them. The blue Ravenclaw banner smacked into Theodore, tangling him momentarily and stopping his pursuit before he set it magically on fire in frustration so he could follow after Lia. If she hadn't been so angry that someone had gone through her things then Lia would've laughed at Theodore's predicament.

Dodging another spell, she started to gain on the man who was still manipulating shadows to hide his features. Whoever it was didn't want to be recognized and it made her curious that perhaps she or Theodore would recognize him. "Stupify!" She heard Theodore's voice echo the same words and a flurry of red sparks sprang toward the man frantically running down the hallway.

Abruptly he turned left down a staircase that led to the fifth floor below, hoping to throw his pursuers off of his tail. Lia waited for Theodore to catch up with her and then nodded toward the stairs. Together they rushed down the staircase and ran after the intruder down the hall. After running through the fifth floor after their intruder, Theodore nodded down the hallway.

"This corridor connects to the one that goes downstairs. I'll go left and meet you there. When we get in the middle he'll be boxed in." Without waiting for confirmation of his plan, as he never did, Theodore ran in the direction he'd signaled. It had been his downfall before, considering that when Lia went adventuring she generally did things spur of the moment. But for now, it seemed like their best bet at catching the man who had destroyed her beautiful office. What could he has possibly wanted there? And had he found it or had they luckily interrupted him before he had been able to locate what he'd been searching for? Lia's mind immediately wandered to the peculiar key she'd discovered when she'd lost her eyesight and shook it off. There was no way that anyone knew about that key. She hadn't told anyone what she'd found, not even Theodore or Malicia!

Once she'd gotten to the end of the corridor she turned the corner, knowing that Theodore would appear at the other end and they would trap the intruder near the staircase to the fourth floor. Aiming her wound she cast her stunning spell.

"Holy…" Malicia screeched, jumping back into the stairwell of the fourth floor as the stunning spells rushed toward her.

"Where did he go? Did you lose him?" Theodore yelled, seemingly not concerned that they had nearly just blown Malicia off of her feet.

"No! He turned the corner and then… poof!" Lia hurried to the door to the stairwell where Malicia was standing, wide eyed, recovering from the shock of being nearly stunned into submission by her friends. "Mal! Are you okay?" Lia shouted. "What are you doing up here? Did you see him?"

"Who are you talking about? I was just chasing some guy on the fourth floor! He went through the library and was shooting spells at me and it was nuts!" Malicia swatted at her friend as Lia fretted over her to make sure the combined spells hadn't singed her cloak.

"He had to have gotten past you. We had him cornered." Theodore spoke accusingly.

"Teddy it's okay, Malicia wouldn't have let him get past her."

"Yeah, _Teddy._" Malicia, very maturely, stuck her tongue out at him to which he made a playful teasing face in response.

"Lord it's like fourth year all over again." Lia shook her head in dismay. "Someone ransacked my office and fled down here. He was right in front of us and now he's… just gone."

"Same with my guy. I started up the stairs after him, he turned the corner and I went to follow… and then the next thing I know you two are nearly stunning me in the hall! Where could they have gone? You can't apparate out of Hogwarts!" Malicia stomped her foot in frustration.

"I don't know but something tells me it's time to sound the alarm." Lia nodded resolutely. "Malicia, why don't you go get McGonagall and let her know what's happening? Teddy and I will keep searching here but something tells me, we're alone now."

"Ask the paintings." Malicia nodded then stopped as she looked around to see what paintings hung on the wall around them. In front of the stairwell was a large portrait, the canvas torn to pieces and its occupants having disappeared entirely in fear.

"Whoa, I guess we won't be asking that one." Theodore muttered as he followed Malicia's gaze to the destroyed painting. Lia's brow furrowed as she considered the events at hand. Was it possible the intruders were still in the castle? And if not how had they escaped so quickly?

"I'm going to get Minerva." Malicia turned on her heels and hurried down the staircase, wand still at the ready. At least she'd get to see a few seconds of the Quidditch game if nothing else.

Lia turned from the painting, there wasn't time to inspect it closer. "C'mon," she said to Theodore, "let's start here. Check out the classes and offices to the west, I'll hit the east and we'll make our way up. I'm sure Minerva will start her search from the ground up anyway." He started to object but decided against it when he saw the worry tinged with suspicion on her face. Nodding, he turned to begin his search. Lia waited until Theodore was a few doors down before going in to an empty classroom. Once she was sure she was alone, Lia quickly removed her cloak and pulled a long golden chain from beneath her robes; attached at the end was the wooden key from the forest. She wrapped her fingers around it, wanting to be sure that it was real, that she hadn't misplaced it or that it hadn't been exchanged without her knowledge.

The key weighed heavily on her mind; she was sure that the intruder was looking for it and just as sure that something dangerous would happen if he had gotten his hands on it. Briefly she considered telling someone else about it, but quickly dismissed the notion. The more who knew of its existence, the more chance that someone unsavory would learn of it. Hearing the sound of students trampling through the hallway, Lia stashed the key once more and slipped out into the flow of traffic in the hall.

"Professor! Professor Black!" Lia turned and found James Potter running towards her, his face eager for news, the same expression his father had always worn before disappearing on some misadventure through the castle. "Professor, did you hear? Someone broke into the castle!"

"Of course I heard, James." She said, eyeing the boy sternly, "And don't think that you're going to try to get involved in any of it." He looked slightly sheepish as she forbade his secret desire. "There are plenty of full grown wizards that know a lot more about the hideouts in this school than you do and we don't need you underfoot. Now go on up to your dormitory."

"Yes ma'am." He sighed, moving a bit slower through the crowd towards the staircase.

Lia eyed a Gryffindor prefect and waved him over, "Keep an eye on Potter," she said, "I don't want him sneaking out of the common room and trying to get involved in this. He has a bit too much of his father in him." The prefect smirked and nodded, jogging to catch up with the wayward troublemaker. Feeling the weight of the key beneath her robes once more, Lia took off down the hall to check the rest of the fourth floor.

Professor McGonagall did not seem to be surprised by the news of two unknown assailants finding their way onto the grounds, but she did look worried at the prospect, and that put the other teachers on full alert; if Minerva McGonagall was concerned, then _everyone_ should be. With the students safely secured in their common rooms, it took the staff the remainder of the day to do a thorough check of the castle. Lunch and dinner were served in the house common rooms for the students. When the search was complete, the staff gathered in the Great Hall, sitting at a single wooden table for their meal. While trying to eat, Lia, Malicia, and Theodore were asked over and over again to repeat what they had seen.

After trying to eat a piece of steak and kidney pie for the fourth time, Lia finally put her fork down and muttered "It's not even worth it" before diving once more into her explanation of the chase. Hermione offered her insights, most of which included her saying something along the lines of, "But how did they leave? 'Hogwarts, A History' clearly explains that you can't apparate or disapparate at Hogwarts! It just doesn't make sense!" Malicia ground her teeth and nearly bit her tongue to keep from yelling at her friend for stating the obvious. Theodore ate in silence as most of the teachers knew he would offer little in the way of detail. Malicia and Lia suddenly wished they were as widely known to be of so few words. Finally the three friends made their excuses and left the curious teachers in the dining hall.

"I'm officially done." Lia said by way of farewell to Theodore in the entrance hall. "See you in the morning I'm sure."

With a wave, Malicia joined Lia and the two friends trudged up the six flights of stairs to their offices. "I want to go to sleep, but I know I'm not going to be able to leave this alone." She said as they approached their doors.

Lia cracked open her office and saw the disaster inside; Professor McGonagall had asked the house elves to leave it alone so that it could be checked to see if anything was missing. "Oh Lord, it's worse than I remember." She sighed wearily.

Malicia peaked at the damage over her shoulder, "Oh yeah, that is pretty bad." She commiserated. She put her hand on Lia's shoulder, "Good luck with that."

Lia glared at her friend, "Thanks." She said dryly.

The two faced off for a full thirty seconds, Lia glaring and Malicia with a perfectly unconcerned expression, before bursting into a fit of giggles unlike any that had hit them yet in their time together. After a few minutes, Malicia was able to catch her breath, "No, seriously, do you want a hand?"

Lia wiped her eyes, laughing for no reason seemed to cast all the weariness from her bones, "You can if you want but I'll be fine, it won't take me too long to fix it up."

Still chuckling, the two friends strode into the office and stood back to back, "Reparo!" they said together, flicking their wands at the mess. As if moving backwards in time, shattered pieces of the random objects in Lia's office were made whole, shelves were firmly back in place with her belongings displayed on top of them, broken picture frames were repaired and the occupants smiling broadly once more. With a flick of a wand, Lia's desk was set upright and her chair positioned comfortably behind it. Bottles of ink were replaced, quills were put back together, and rolls of parchment were stacked carefully on the desk. What must have taken almost half an hour to destroy took only minutes to set right.

With a final wave, Lia replaced the stationary picture of her muggle parents and the cellphone she used to contact them. A stab of guilt reminded her that she hadn't spoken with them since her encounter in the forest; the whole scenario had shaken her and her mother could always hear the unease in her voice. How can you explain that you were temporarily blinded, attacked by a minotaur, and have a strange and mysterious key in your possession that could endanger your hidden world without letting on that you have a hidden world and that, on top of it all, everything that had happened was pretty much 'business as usual' by Hogwarts standards? As frustrating as it could be, Lia still couldn't fathom the idea of letting her parents in on the world she called home.

"You good?" Malicia asked, leaning on the doorframe and inspecting the spotless office.

Lia smiled, pushing the guilt aside to be dealt with later, "Yeah, thanks. Clean-up is always more fun when you've got someone to blame the mess on in the first place."

"Hey, I was three floors down when this place blew up, you can't pin it on me this time."

"Psh, excuses." Lia waved her hand, "We all know that you hired that mysterious shadow man to destroy the place. All. Your. Fault."

Malicia shook her lustrous hair out of her face and crossed her arms, "Always wanting to shift the blame for your own laziness; you haven't changed at all." She said loftily.

Lia opened her mouth with a retort to continue what was promising to be very entertaining banter when green flames erupted from the fireplace and Professor McGonagall's voice cut through the office, "Lia, I need you and Malicia to come to my office as quickly as you can." She said sternly.

"Yes Professor McGonagall." The girls said in unison, sounding like two school girls who were in trouble once more.

"I said to call me Minerva." She snapped before the flames turned yellow once more.

"I have a feeling it's going to be a long night." Malicia sighed, thinking fondly over her four poster bed as she and Lia trooped out of the office and headed back down the stairs to the second floor to the gargoyle statue.

"Fancy meeting you here." Malicia and Lia turned to find Harry and Ron approaching them as the gargoyle statue sprang to the side, revealing the spiral staircase.

"McGonagall called in the big guns, huh?" Lia said playfully, nudging Ron in the ribs.

"Kingsley called us, he said there was some goings on at Hogwarts." He said, stepping onto the rotating stairs. The other three followed suit.

Malicia looked at Harry with a raised brow, "Taking the easy jobs now, huh?"

Harry shrugged, "He knew we'd never leave it alone as soon as we heard about it." He explained. "Besides, we need to clear our heads right now; our other case is leaving us dead ends."

"Well, this one may not clear your head so much as make you scratch it more." Lia said as she opened the door.

Minerva stood in the midst of her crowded office; many of Lia and Malicia's old classmates and their fellow instructors were crowded inside and it was standing room only. "Finally." She said shortly as the four trooped into the room. "Now we can begin."


	5. A New Threat

Malicia and Lia were surprised to see so many people gathered within one small place, all looking rather puzzled and amazed to see so many people from their past gathered together. For many it would be the first reunion of students from their time at Hogwarts and for others it would be their only.

To say the usually tidy office was cramped was an understatement at the very least. Harry and Ron on the other hand, didn't seem at all surprised by the amount of people who had arrived at Minerva's request. Considering the happenings that had been going on for the last few weeks, a gathering of people willing to risk their neck to defend the wizarding world if need be was bound to happen sooner or later. The last time such a threat had risen, the alarm had been sounded too late. Harry's guess was that they were trying to avoid a similar situation.

Besides, it was good to know who had your back in a sticky situation. At least that was what Harry Potter had realized after having fought Voldemort so many years ago on numerous occasions. If there was one lesson he'd learned through years of stubbornness it was that there was strength in numbers and to know who your allies were.

"Now that our guests of honor have arrived we can get started." The powerful voice of Minerva McGonagall cut through the mindless chatter that had filled the crowded room. Amongst the crowd was Luna Lovegood who was perhaps the only one who didn't look confused or alarmed, George Weasley, one of Ron's older brothers, the professors of Hogwarts, Seamus Finnigan, Dennis Creevey, Padma and Parvati Patil, as well as many other alumni of Wizarding School. It was peculiar, but also thrilling, to see so many people from their past gathered in one place.

"We're the guests of honor." Lia whispered comically before taking a seat near the far end of the room with Malicia. Despite the intense situation that had transpired, she hadn't lost her sense of humor. Chairs had been summoned by the Headmistress to accommodate the many people who were gathered inside the now overly crowded office. Minerva shot Lia a glance that clearly told her to be quiet. It was like being in fourth year Transfiguration all over again.

"As you are all aware, and some of you have already heard the story thanks to our staff that preferred to remain extremely well informed ahead of schedule, there were intruders within our school today and they were _not_ apprehended." Minerva stood before her desk, hands behind her back and her lips tight across her face. "I'm sure you're wondering what this has to do with any of you other than most of you have students starting term."

"I suspect we all have a small idea as to what it has to do with us." Luna raised her hand and spoke, much like she would have done in an old classroom setting. Everyone in the room turned their eyes to the blond woman who always looked out of place, but comfortable to be so. "The dreams we had a few weeks ago. They all involved the school founders of our old houses. You suspect that this is somehow connected to the break in, or am I wrong?" Luna smiled pleasantly, cocking her head to the side knowingly.

"You are _not_ wrong." Minerva's eyes sparkled, pleased by the deduction Luna had made without being given more information concerning the events at hand. "Every one of you reported to me that you've suffered nightmares involving your old house's founder and since then strange things have been transpiring throughout Europe. I figured it was about time we made everyone aware of all the facts that have been uncovered so everyone can be on the lookout for anything suspicious."

"But if they're just dreams then why do we have to be on our guard?" Seamus spoke up, walking forward with his arms crossed. While no one was saying what was on their mind, not a person in the room was pleased to be called to arms. The last time any of them had to be on their guard outside of personal matters was when Voldemort had held the entire world in his terrifying grasp. None of the people in the room were hoping to experience something quite like that again within their lifetime. Unfortunately, dark dealings had no time constraints and waited for no one.

"Dreams are far more dangerous than you may think." Malicia spoke up. A few people in the room groaned to hear her objections. She was as notorious for her wild ideas as Luna Lovegood had been for her beliefs. "Oh, you can roll your eyes all you like, but dreams are a product of our subconscious and for someone to be manipulating that? That's absolutely terrifying! Think about the gravity of that for a minute. If someone can control the subconscious minds of everyone in this room plus those who may not have been summoned or didn't come forward then think of what else they may be capable of." The room fell silent as everyone contemplated the idea of someone getting into their heads and fiddling around with their dreams. It seemed as though no one was keen on the idea.

"Miss Maena is correct. It is powerful magic that's used to get inside one person's mind and manipulate it nonetheless a number of people at the same moment. It's unlike any magic we've ever seen. The closest we can compare it to is that of the Imperius curse." McGonagall paced in front of her desk then turned to address the rapt crowd. "While this may be the reason I gathered you here it is not what I have to tell you. Mr. Potter? Mr. Weasley? I do believe you have some things to share with us."

"We do?" Ron leaned to whisper to Harry, looking particularly puzzled.

"This morning there was a break in at Wenlock's Wizarding Menagerie." There was an audible gasp from Hermione at the other end of the room. "I was assigned to the case and hoped I could catch up with the culprit since we'd been notified pretty quickly. When we arrived on the scene the building was on fire and the wizard running the place had well… been lost." Harry hung his head in respect for the curator of the library. Hermione had her hands over her mouth, the color drained from her face and Ron was visibly wincing, since he knew just how much his wife loved the library.

"What does this have to do with the dreams we're having? I mean it's terribly sad but what exactly does that mean for us?" Padma chimed in, with her hand raised as well. It was hard not to feel like they were back in class after being reunited with their old classmates and their former professor.

"I don't know." Harry shook his head. "I have a feeling that it's connected in some way and I can't shake it. We're still working on recovering any clues that might not have been destroyed in the flames but whoever broke into the library knew what they were doing. In my experience you go with your gut."

"Kind of peculiar that someone broke in there this morning looking for something and then someone was ballsy enough to break into Hogwarts on the same day, don't you think?" Ron added in his two cents. "I may not have a feeling about this sort of thing but I don't think it's coincidence either."

"If we can figure out what they were looking for then perhaps we'll be able to find out who the intruders were by searching for who would require such an item." Lia contemplated, her fingers tapping nervously against her leg. Deep in her heart she already knew what the man who had ransacked her room had been looking for. While she wasn't sure what the second man had been after or what had been stolen at the library, Lia couldn't help but feel that the key around her neck had more to do with what was going on than she could possibly speculate.

"That's what we're guessing. The problem is that we don't really have a clue what they were looking for in that library." Harry rubbed his messy hair nervously.

"Well, obviously they had to be looking for a book of some kind." Hermione suddenly stood up from her seat at the other end of the room and rushed over to her husband who slipped his arm around her comfortingly.

"That's not fair, books are _her_ answer for everything." Seamus interjected. Some things didn't change with time.

"He has a point." Ron winced as Hermione swatted at him and gave him a disapproving glance.

"Well on this occasion, I do believe that Miss Granger is correct." Minerva cleared her throat and spoke louder than those arguing in front of her. "It was a theft at a library. One can only guess that what they were looking for was a book. It would be the perfect way for things to go unnoticed wouldn't it? To set a building filled with paper on fire."

"If you can pinpoint what was rifled around and in what area I might be able to tell you what was taken or at least let you know what section it was in. There are records at the Ministry of Magic that would tell us what books were owned, at least the important ones. Perhaps we'll be able to get an idea of what he was after if nothing else!" Hermione, though she sounded excited, looked glum. It was hard to hear that one of her favorite places, and people, had been lost to whatever darkness was building around the corner.

"Excuse me." A voice interrupted from the doorway. A man with mischievous honey brown eyes, speckled with green poked into the conversation. There was light scarring on his arms and neck, but other than that he looked bright and chipper if not somewhat disheveled.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Cassian." Minerva pursed her lips and looked at him disapprovingly but he didn't seem nearly as threatened by her as the others in the room did.

"I was caught up with some work at St. Mungo's. I couldn't very well leave it unfinished. That would've been plain irresponsible, mum." The man looked apologetic and bowed his head respectfully. Clearly he was more comfortable around the headmistress by the way he spoke.

Malicia had jumped nearly a mile when she heard his name and peered through the crowd of people to try and get a look to make sure that this man was the same one she'd been friends with in school. Cassian had been the last person she'd expected to show up! It wasn't like it had been a very common name, so she doubted she was getting him confused with someone else. Lia nudged her friend to get her to stop fidgeting around.

"Did you have something to add or did you simply want to make your presence knows Mr. Russell?" Minerva continued and waved her hand, conjuring an empty seat for him to take on the opposite end of the room closer to the Pensieve that she'd inherited from the prior headmasters.

"Actually, I was wondering why you think any of these things are connected at all. Yes, yes I get that Potter has a hunch and you have a bad feeling, Minerva, but what if these are all simply random acts of violence? You're drawing conclusions too quickly if you ask me. I think we need to deal with these things as they are and if we find a common thread then we can start to look at the bigger picture they might make."

"I agree." Malicia chimed in, sounding slightly upset that she wasn't aware that Cassian was even on the same continent nonetheless going to be in attendance that night. No one else had seemed surprised to see him or that he was late, except for her of course. What was she missing? Who was going to fill her in and when? Lia averted her eyes, refusing to look at her friend and was clearly the guilty party.

Malicia glared at her out of the corner of her eye before continuing, "But I think that it's still too much of a coincidence that this nastiness has gone down in such a close proximity in a short amount of time. I propose that we investigate the different accounts as they are, without considering the coincidences and report back in a week or when we have more information. If we can find a common thread then we'll start acting like something more sinister is going on beneath the surface. I think jumping to conclusions right now isn't the smartest idea." Cassian seemed just as startled by her voice as she had been by his.

"Of course, you're both right. I was getting to that." Minerva nodded her head to agree. The rest of the room seemed to have come to the same conclusion. "There's no reason that we shouldn't remain well informed on the matters even if they aren't related to the dreams. For now, we'll act as though they have little in common but we'll keep our eyes and ears open just in case. If there's another threat to our world we need to be prepared for it. We were complacent when Voldemort returned and unwilling to believe that wicked things could still happen in our world. That will _not_ happen again." Minerva then glanced at Malicia and Lia who felt suddenly singled out. "Miss Black's room was ransacked during the attack. Was anything taken?"

"No, not a thing. They just messed up all my stuff." Lia nodded truthfully. She was a dreadful liar when she was under pressure, particularly when it came to the headmistress. There was something about Minerva McGonagall that was threatening and formidable.

"They were certainly looking for something though." Theodore chimed in and everyone was surprised to hear him talk. He shrugged his shoulders and continued on. "Whatever it was, they weren't finding it there. It's possible we got to them before he managed to get what they were looking for."

"They sure did a number on my things to walk away empty handed."

"What about the painting that was destroyed in the hallway?" Everyone turned to look at Malicia again. "Well, think about it. It wasn't destroyed beforehand and now it's a huge mess. Perhaps there's something in there that they didn't want us to find. Even if it doesn't hold any significance to what they were trying to take, perhaps there's some sort of clue within the frame or the picture itself if it can be restored."

"I've already thought of that, Miss Maena." McGonagall smiled proudly at her staff.

From the back of the room, the door opened again and an old, decrepit Mr. Filch nudged his way through the mass of chairs and bodies to the center of the room, mumbling to himself as he pulled the painting behind him. "Apologies headmistress," he wheezed, "it took me a while to find them. They were hiding in the divination tower." He pushed some of the staff aside and laid the painting on the wall so that everyone could see it.

The painting had been slashed nearly to shreds; it was clear whoever had done it had wanted it to be noticed. Filch had crudely sewn the pieces of canvas together and convinced the occupants to return to their frame. A man and woman in emerald and sapphire colored Victorian style clothes were hunched together in a corner, the largest part of the painting that was in one piece. McGonagall looked at it with a raised brow and Filch's chest expanded defensively, "It's the best I could do on short notice." He barked. Minerva turned her fiery eyes to his and after a few seconds he bowed his head and mumbled an apology, "I'll do it proper as soon as I can o'course." Minerva nodded and Filch turned and worked his way back to the door and out of the office.

Once everyone had readjusted to see the ruined canvas, Minerva looked at the occupants, "Ah, I was afraid it was your painting." She said sympathetically.

The woman smiled, though her husband still had his arm protectively around her shoulders, "Yes, it was quite an ordeal." She said, pain evident in her voice.

"Move over, I can't see." Lia hissed to Malicia, who sat frozen in her seat. Her mouth hung agape as she stared in disbelief at the painting before her. "C'mon Mal, I can't get around you with Teddy sitting there!"

Minerva turned once more to the two girls, a look of exasperation evident in her eyes, "What is the problem ladies?"

"How did they get here?" Malicia demanded, suddenly standing from her seat and climbing over her friends to get to the front of the room. With so many people crowded around, it was a much more difficult feat than it had seemed.

Lia muttered "Finally" and moved. As soon as she saw the painting, understanding dawned on her face, "Oh, this isn't good. You guys are in _trouble._"

"When did this painting arrive at the school? How did it get here?" Malicia demanded to McGonagall, anger and pain in her shimmering eyes.

The others in the office muttered to each other in confusion as Lia pushed her way forward and put a comforting hand on Malicia's shaking shoulder. "It's okay, Mal." She whispered.

"Hello Malicia." The man in the painting said, his eyes brighter than they had been a moment before.

Minerva cleared her throat, calling everyone's attention back to the subject on hand. "Lione, Seishana, did you see anything that happened before you were attacked?"

"We heard the sound of people running through the halls," Lione said. "When they came within view of our frame we saw a man, probably in his forties. He stopped to catch his breath and looked around. When he saw our painting he pulled a knife from his cloak and cut the canvas to shreds; we just barely escaped intact."

McGonagall nodded, "Did he say anything? Did you recognize him at all?" she asked.

The two looked at each other and then at Malicia before answering, "He…he said, 'I'm sorry'." Seishana spoke, pulling her thick, curly, black hair behind her ear.

"'I'm sorry'?" Minerva asked, clearly not expecting such a simple, polite statement to come from someone who destroyed a fifty year old painting.

Lione hugged his wife closer, "Minerva, it was Samael."

Minerva's eyebrows nearly disappeared in her hair, "Are you sure?" she asked. "It's been a long time since you've seen him and, well, he…died!"

Seishana shook her head, "I know that's what we thought, Minerva, but I _know_ my son. It was him."

"Well, that would certainly explain the apology." She muttered, shuffling papers around on her desk. Turning to the rest of the people in the room she cleared her throat and said, "Obviously, we need to do a bit more digging on this. Until we have things sorted, I want to start having patrols through the halls. I will not have our students endangered while we try to figure out what's going on. Does anyone else have any questions?" Nearly every hand went into the air. Minerva rolled her eyes, "About the break-in or the subsequent patrols?" The hands disappeared. "Good. I'll send you all a schedule of watches. Harry, I suppose I can count on you and some of the aurors to help?"

"Of course," He said, eyeing Malicia's pale face curiously.

"Wait, just one second." Ron raised his hand in objection.

"What is it, Mr. Weasley?"

"So one of the guys who broke into the castle is the dead son of the dead people in this portrait?" Ron gestured toward Malicia who looked dumbstruck and overwhelmed.

"Yes, that's what Lione and Seishana have shared with us." Minerva's eyes were sparkling again, reminding each of the prior headmaster. "It could be a case of mistaken identity but for now we can assume that Samael Maena broke into Hogwarts searching for something more than his parents' painting."

"Just wanted to make sure I wasn't going mental." Ron muttered and sighed, still not quite understanding what had transpired. But he wasn't alone; most of the people in the room, including the headmistress, were completely lost. While they'd uncovered a number of clues, there was no way to tell yet if they'd be useful or just cause for further confusion.

"Very well, off you go." It took a second for everyone to realize that they had been dismissed, but slowly the group of former classmates rose to their feet and made their way either down the stairs or to the fire, disappearing in a burst of green smoke. Soon, only Lia and Malicia remained near the painting.

Malicia was looking at the painting, barely noticing the rest of the now-empty room. Nothing else had seemed very important once she'd realized it was there. "I take it you never noticed your parents' painting before." Minerva said, her voice oddly gentle in an attempt to offer comfort.

"How long has it been here?" she asked, her voice barely audible.

"Since their death." She explained. "They had it commissioned so that they could watch their children grow up."

"But…how? It's not like just anyone could have a painting hung here at Hogwarts." Lia quietly asked.

"They were always large supporters of the school, and favorites of Dumbledore's." Minerva smiled fondly at the two subjects in the painting. "Everyone loved them and the painting was hung graciously as arranged in their will."

"I'm sorry, I just…I didn't expect to see them here. I haven't seen them since I was very little. If my mom didn't look just like me I wouldn't have realized it was them." Malicia said, tearing her eyes from the canvas and clearing her throat. "We should get out of your office, Minerva. I don't know why you keep letting us disrupt this place. There are better rooms to hold large gatherings in." Without waiting for a response she turned and opened the door to the stairs. "Coming Lia?" she called as she walked down the staircase.

Lia looked apologetically at Minerva, "Sorry." She shrugged before following her friend.

When the two girls reached the bottom of the stairs, Malicia turned and glared at Lia, "You knew about Cass being here, didn't you?"

Lia nervously bit her lip and fiddled her fingers. "_Maybe…_ That depends on how mad you are that I didn't tell you," she averted her eyes, trying to look at anything but Malicia's fuming gaze.

Malicia punched her in the shoulder playfully, "Why didn't you _tell_ me? He was one of my best friends!"

"Well, I didn't know how you'd handle it!" she said defensively, rubbing her shoulder.

"So springing it on me in the middle of the first term was a better idea in front of all of our old classmates _and_ our boss?"

"It's not my fault Cass has no sense of timing! He was supposed to start at the beginning of the term, just like us! You would have found out in the Great Hall just like the rest of the students!"

Malicia looked like she was about to throw a retort at her friend, but sighed instead. "This has been one hell of a night. How am I supposed to sleep now?"

Lia looked apologetically at Malicia, "I'm sorry Mal. I guess I should have told you. Cass and I have stayed in contact over the years and, I don't know," she shrugged, "I suppose I wimped out on telling you by convincing myself it'd be more fun to surprise you."

Malicia looked at the guilt-ridden face of her friend and shook her head, "I guess we didn't talk much before the semester started and I don't see that it would have come up in conversation naturally so, maybe I'll let you off the hook."

"Really?" Lia sounded shocked.

"But you'll owe me!" Malicia grinned mischievously.

"Dang it!" Lia sighed, "But I suppose you're right. What'll it be?"

"Oh, you'll know when you hear it." Malicia smirked before heading up the stairs towards the offices. "But I'm going to bide my time with it. It's a rare occasion that you owe me one."

"Fine, fine… Though you have to admit if we hadn't had that surprise visit by your parents there, then Cassian just showing up like that _would've_ been hilarious."

"I admit nothing." Malicia offered a weak smile as they walked toward the offices. "Are you okay to sleep tonight? You can hang out it my living quarters if you're _scared._"

"Oh, I think I can handle it." The two stopped in front of the door that led to Lia's office. When she didn't make a move to head inside immediately she cleared her throat. "Though I guess it couldn't hurt to you know, take a look around it. I mean, just in case."

"Right." Malicia laughed before tugging open the door to her friend's office. Walking inside the once ransacked room felt just as it ever did. It was like nothing had happened at all, but both girls new better. Lia closed the door behind her and glanced around.

"Eerie, isn't it?" Lia leaned against the door, remembering the grim sight that had met her and Theodore when they're gone to retrieve her rosette earlier that day.

"Very." Malicia peeked around the room, hand on her wand just in case. It was unlikely that the intruder would return to the scene of the crime anyway. Perhaps they'd even gone to the wrong office in search of something Lia didn't actually have. Malicia considered they were looking for _her_ office but what could they try to take? There was nothing tangible from her journey.

"Hey Mal," Lia started, sounding wary. If she told her friend what was on her mind and what had happened that day in the Forbidden Forest when she'd mysteriously lost her eyesight, what would she think? The key seemed a little heavier around Lia's neck suddenly.

"What is it?" Malicia could tell that something was weighing heavily on her friend, but could guess it was nothing further than the events of the day. Though, Malicia could take a guess as to what her friend would reveal if she continued on.

"Nothing," Lia cleared her throat and reconsidered. If someone was after the key then it could be dangerous. She wouldn't tell anyone until she could find out more about it, but so far she'd been able to uncover nothing about a key made of wood. If it was putting her in danger simply because she had found it, she didn't want to endanger her friend by sharing the information with her. Until Lia knew what she was up against, she'd keep the information to herself. "Are you alright, with… all this stuff with your parents and your brother?" Lia warily changed the subject. Malicia stayed silent for a moment and then shrugged.

"To be honest I'm probably less bothered by it than I should be." Lia stayed silent after the long raven haired woman responded. "It's hard to explain but I never knew them very well at all and seeing them moving for the first in years it was, well, it didn't feel real. How am I supposed to connect to people I never really knew outside of photos and stories?"

"I get that." Lia nodded her head. "Still, this is pretty big you know? So if you need to talk…"

"Thanks Lia, but I'm not much for the touchy feely conversations you know that." Malicia laughed and then wiped the side of her face, glancing purposely away from her friend.

"Aw, you don't want me to go all Dr. Phil on you?" Lia teased. Malicia looked at her in confusion.

"Who's Dr. Phil?"

"Oh just… never mind." Lia laughed and patted her friend on the door. The two walked toward the door to her office again and then stopped to look at something rather peculiar. They sat and stared at the wooden door in awe. There were silver markings scribbled into the door. It didn't look like they'd been there on purpose, but rather like someone had marked the door with their fingers while in a rush to leave. Instinctively they both checked their hands to make sure they hadn't been the ones to leave the marks.

"What _is_ that?" Malicia crept closer and narrowed her eyes at the peculiar substance.

"It looks almost like some sort of paint."

"Phosphorous paint maybe."

"Do you think whoever broke in here left it behind on accident?" Lia mused.

"Who knows? We've had the door open most of the day haven't we? It's no wonder we didn't see it. For all we know it could be on _your_ Teddy's hands."

"He hates that you call him that."

"If he didn't I wouldn't do it." Malicia stuck her tongue out at her friend. They were finding bizarre clues faster than they were finding what they led to and it was starting to confuse her. What did these things all mean? There had to be some way to fit the puzzles pieces together other than by guesses and conjecture.

"I told him that too."

"Well that's his fault then. I think we should take a sample before you show McGonagall."

"I think you're right. Why don't you take it?" Lia nodded toward the door. Snapping her fingers she walked across the room and dug through a drawer behind her desk. After a moment of digging she found a small vial and brought it over to Malicia who used her wand to scrap away some of the silvery glowing material that was found on the door and into the vial. Capping it she slipped it into the pocket inside of her cloak for safekeeping.

"Perfect. Show McGonagall and tell her we've already gotten a sample." Malicia had her hand on the door, ready to leave.

"I will do that." Lia nodded then hesitated to usher Malicia out the door. "Are you _sure_ everything's okay Mal?"

"I'm fine." Malicia laughed and waved her hand at her friend to dismiss her worry. "Really, I'm okay. It's a lot to take in but I'm dealing with it. Honestly I was more surprised to see Cass than I was to see my family." It was true, her friends had always been more of a family to her than the people she'd been told she was related to. It wasn't that she didn't _love_ her family and her heritage, but she had never felt the strong connective bond of blood relation. She had attributed it to part of why she'd been placed into Slytherin house. She'd inadvertently become a loner thanks to her upbringing.

"Get some rest then."

"You too. And don't forget, I'm just down the hall if you need me to check your closet for nargles."

"I'm not twelve, I know how to protect myself." Lia laughed.

"I'm just saying you know, in case you've forgotten how to be a witch and all that… You did just make some muggle joke."

"How did you know it was a muggle joke?"

"I'm just that good." Malicia crept out the door. "Night Lia."

"Get out!" The door closed behind her and Malicia couldn't help but chuckle. She was grateful for her friend in these trying times. It was true that she'd gotten used to being alone and dealing with her problems without a partner but the events of the last month had forced her to rely on others in ways she had never thought she'd be capable of.

Deciding she had too much going on in her mind, Malicia walked away from her office and headed through the halls. Under the guise of patrolling the corridors, she took a walk, thinking over the events that had taken place in Minerva's office.

The painting of her parents had come as a surprise, but what she found even more peculiar was that she had never noticed it was in the school before. How many times had she walked down that corridor and not noticed a painting of her own flesh and blood hanging on the wall? She'd always loved the library and to have not noticed the painting that close to one of her most frequented places within the castle grounds upset her more than the existence of the painting at all. If Minerva would allow her to, Malicia wanted to learn more about the painting itself and speak to those inside of it.

What upset her the most was probably knowing that her parents had been there to speak to within the school all these years and no one had made an effort to mention its existence. Even the other paintings had never mentioned it to her! Had her parents avoided her on purpose?

"Great, it's like being a moody teenager all over again." Muttering as she hung her head low and walked through the corridors, Malicia considered the reasons why no one had told her about the painting. Had they been afraid of how she would react? Of course she'd be surprised to see them! McGonagall talked a good game about wanting to be open and up front about what was going on in the wizarding world, but Malicia could tell that she was just as filled with secrecy and deception as Dumbledore had been.

Then again, it wasn't like she was laying all her cards flat on the table for everyone to see either. She'd told no one about the path to the Staff of Dreams that she'd started upon even though it could affect a large number of people. She hadn't even told Lia and it was likely the poor woman was starting to question her sanity thanks to the things that it would put her through. But that was _different_.

Was it though?

Shaking that thought from her mind, she considered the second bombshell that been revealed by the first. The handsome and familiar looking man who had led her in pursuit throughout the castle had been her brother, at least according to her parents. He'd died long ago, or at least that was what she'd been told. It was turning out that there were many things she'd been told for years that were simply untrue. Perhaps she'd start an investigation of her own to find out the truth behind the story of her heritage. If for no other reason, she'd do it so she wouldn't have to feel as dumbstruck as she'd felt when there was a painting slashed of her parents.

Even if Samael hadn't died with her parents so long ago, then what would he be doing sneaking around the castle? If he was as curious as she had been her whole life it was possible that he would be thinking about the Staff of Dreams too. But then again, he hadn't grown up the same way she had, so it was impossible to know what was going through his mind.

Before her parents had revealed that they thought the intruder was their son, Malicia had the sneaking suspicion that she'd known the man she was chasing. If it was her brother, and she was acting under the assumption that he was still dead, then it was likely he knew a thing or two about folklore. She'd known before she started the path to the Staff of Dreams that it was likely that someone else was in pursuit of it but she had never considered that she'd be _related_ to them. The next time she spoke to Harry or Ron she would see if one of them could make an inquiry into the events surrounding the death of her brother and her parents.

Before she knew it, Malicia had returned to the row of offices in the hallway. Wand in front of her, lit up to illuminate the corridor in front of her and to ward off Peeves who had far too much fun tricking her since the beginning of the year, Malicia caught a silhouette in her wand light at the end of the hallway near the door to her office.

Cautiously approaching the door she held the wand in front of her to make her presence known.

"Whose there?"

"Oh hey," The familiar and yet all too distant voice of Cassian Russell met Malicia and he looked as awkward as he sounded. He was leaning against her door, a piece of parchment and a quill in his hand. It was obvious that he'd wanted to leave her a note. "I thought you were sleeping when you didn't answer so I was going to leave you a note."

"I was taking a walk. I'm not really tired after that meeting." Malicia nodded, feeling just as out of place as Cassian looked.

"That explains you're not answering." Shoving the piece of parchment back into his best black cloak, he then wiped his hands over his scruffy jaw and through his hair, only succeeding in messing it up further. He'd never quite been able to keep himself as tidy as he would've liked to.

"That it would." Malicia smiled knowingly. Cassian seemed to be struggling with what he'd like to say. Malicia had always been hard to read, at least for him and he'd never been very good at expressing himself the way everyone else seemed to be able to. He was rather _quirky _to say the very least.

"You looked either really surprised or really frustrated to see me tonight. I can't tell which." Cassian finally spoke what was on his mind. "I know we didn't keep in touch, Malicia, but it doesn't mean I stopped thinking of you. And to be fair I didn't know you were going to be here either. I'm guessing I have Lia to blame for that."

"She thought it'd be funny for us to just run into each other." Malicia smiled and then wrapped her arms around her old friend in a hug. He was rather surprised, but pleasantly so, and returned the affection.

"I suppose it might have been under different circumstances. That was a lot for everyone to take in tonight, especially for you."

"It's weird seeing so many old faces, but it's good to see yours Cass. I always missed you but I'm terrible about keeping in touch."

"That's a relief." Cassian leaned against the frame of the door. "I was afraid that by the way you looked at me you wouldn't want anything to do with me."

"Still as paranoid as always, are you?" He'd been very possessive as a kid, a Gryffindor but a peculiar one at that. He'd always been busy experimenting and getting into trouble but had been, by far, one of the smartest students of his year. Two years younger than Malicia, he looked a few years older than he was and she wondered what had happened in his life to make him age faster. He was still as handsome as ever, despite it all.

"Some things never change. I was uh, doing some work for Lia and some of the muggles she used to help out before she switched careers for the hundredth time. We got to talking and realized how good it was to see each other. I thought about finding you but I wouldn't know where to begin outside of reading your books which… I have. You've made quite the career for yourself."

"I think there's a compliment in there somewhere." Malicia laughed and nodded toward her office. "Want to come in and have a glass of pumpkin juice? I know it's juvenile but I hadn't had a glass in years and I happened to have one the first day back at Hogwarts and haven't been able to stop myself since."

"I'm not going to even try to pretend that I ever stopped drinking it." Cassian walked through the door that Malicia was now holding open for him. Once they sat down and got to talking and catching up about what had transpired over their years apart, it was like they'd never stopped talking at all. Malicia was once again astounded by how the passage of time could change so much and also nothing at all.

Malicia shared her business ventures and partnership with Luna Lovegood and how she disconnected with her former classmates over the years. She told him about her shop and new home, and how she came to be a teacher at Hogwarts thanks to McGonagall.

Cassian explained that a year after graduating from the school he'd been attacked by a werewolf while on holiday and had been afflicted with the curse, which had resulted in the haggard look he had about him. Since then he'd taken up studies of how to combine muggle science and medicine with magic, since he considered that the muggles were far cleverer than most people gave them credit for.

"You know they've managed to eradicate quite a few illnesses that we still struggle with as a wizarding community." Cassian sat in his chair and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and through his shaggy hair. "They've got these medicines and while they're not as impressive as what most alchemists can come up with, they've got some pretty ingenious devices and ideas to help with their ailments. I've been keeping in touch with a muggle doctor who is aware of our world. His brother went to a wizarding school in Brazil so he's got magical blood in his family. We've been working to try and cure my affliction. There's nothing wrong with being a werewolf. It's the uncontrolled destruction that comes of it which is the problem. I honestly don't mind the curse other than the pain."

"I've seen it in action." Malicia nodded her head. "Most werewolves lock themselves up during the peak of the lunar cycle so they won't get out and hurt anyone but the violence is so intense sometimes that they mostly end up maiming themselves."

"It's true. If I wasn't a doctor of sorts I'd probably be worse off than I am. That being said, if I hadn't been afflicted with the curse then I probably wouldn't have pursued medicine and I've found I'm pretty good at it."

"I was surprised when you mentioned St. Mungo's." Malicia smiled, but was impressed with the way his life had turned out. She always knew he'd end up helping people one way or another. Cassian had always been selfless, caring, and kind despite his awkward and sometimes upfront demeanor. It was part of his genius unfortunately, to say things without entirely thinking out the repercussions of his words.

"Why? Didn't think I'd be a good doctor, hmm?"

"Not exactly." Malicia laughed. "Oh, you're into the science thing now so I guess I should ask you instead of McGonagall who is probably just going to send me to you anyway." Reaching into her cloak, Malicia pulled out the vial of the mystery substance she'd scraped off of Lia's door. "I've never seen anything like this before." Holding up the vial to the light she frowned. "It was silver on Lia's door but now it looks almost like it's turned purple."

Cassian got up from his spot on the chair and hunched over, leaning close to the vial. From his pocket he pulled a pair of glasses and placed them on the tip of his nose so he could take a better look.

"May I?" Cassian pointed at the vial, flashing a cheeky grin as he did. "Sorry about getting into your personal space, I'm used to working alone."

"Fine by me." Malicia shrugged and handed Cassian the vial she held. Glancing at it in the light and moving it about so he could get a better look at it, he seemed puzzled and enthralled. Clearly he was thinking very hard about what he was seeing but was saying little to nothing out loud. When he continued in silence for five more minutes, Malicia joined him where he stood and tapped his shoulder. He nearly jumped a mile out of his skin.

"Oh, sorry… I do that sometimes. Space out… get lost in my thoughts. I used to do it out loud but people tend to get annoyed."

"You used to do that in school too. You know sometimes it's okay to say what's in your head even if it annoys people."

"And _sometimes_ that gets me punched by your boyfriend." Cassian smirked and rubbed his jaw in remembrance.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that Nico isn't going to punch you from wherever he is right now."

"I tend to offend people when I ramble on so I started doing it in my head and so I just space out and irritate people because I seem like I'm ignoring them. I'm aware of my flaws." Cassian shrugged. "I don't know what this is just looking at it. I'll have to run a few tests. If you can get any more of it off of Lia's door I'd do that and send it to me by owl. Or you can come down to my lab at St. Mungo's and I can give you the tour of what people call… _The Cave_."

"The Cave?" Malicia couldn't help but laugh.

"I like to work in the dark." Cassian pocketed the vial. "I'll bring this back to my lab and let you know what I find. I'm going to be teaching once a week classes here about the medicine from both worlds. McGonagall thought it'd be a brilliant idea."

"I think it is too actually." Malicia nodded her head. "You would be surprised how many students don't know how to properly clean up a scraped knee."

"Well, it's gone over real well with the parents having a werewolf at the school teaching about muggle medicine."

"Well the parents aren't the ones who have to go here." Malicia looked toward the door and sighed. Then she glanced at the clock on her wall and widened her eyes.

"What is it?" Cassian peered over his shoulder curiously.

"It's four in the morning."

"Wow, didn't expect that…" Cassian cleared his throat but was secretly pleased that time had slipped by. "I suppose I should probably go considering I have a shift in the morning at St. Mungo's. They let me do my work there but in order to really get paid and to fund my research I have to work with the regular staff too."

"Well then I shouldn't keep you any longer. When will you be back? You'll have an office here right?"

"Actually I'll be back tomorrow night to set it up. I'm at the other end of the hall, closer to the ever predictable Theodore the potions master."

"You saw that coming too?" Malicia laughed.

"I think everyone but Lia saw it coming." Cassian rolled his eyes. "But I should go. It was great to catch up with you Malicia…"

"Likewise Cass." Malicia walked to the door and held it open for him. The exhaustion was finally hitting her now that she was aware of just how long she'd been awake.

"Just one more thing, I meant to ask earlier."

"What is it?" Malicia leaned against the door as she held it open for him.

"No more Nico, huh?" Cassian looked surprised by this.

"I haven't talked to him since we broke up after graduation. From what I've heard he got married. His son goes to school here, I ran into him the first week. He'd apparently heard stories about me."

"Wow." Cassian looked surprised but impressed. "I thought for sure you two were going to be together for the long haul." He tried not to look _too_ happy about the fact that he'd been right about Nico, even if he hadn't known the whole story of why they had split up. He'd never liked the man, had always called him snaky and made snarky comments about him behind his back.

"You and me both but life has a funny way of changing things in ways you'd least expect." Malicia nodded her head. "And don't pretend you're all upset for me or anything, you couldn't stand him and you made that perfectly clear to everyone who would listen."

"Guilty." Cassian held both his hands up in front of him. "You were too good for him."

"Oh, get out!" Malicia swatted at his shoulder and then nodded. "Really, you're going to be exhausted tomorrow."

"I expect you to help me unpack."

"We'll see how generous I'm feeling." Malicia waved goodbye to her friend and watched him walk down the hall. What had started out as startling and unpleasant had turned into yet another blessing. Despite the evil things transpiring throughout the world, the reunion with her friends had made it worthwhile for Malicia. At the other end of the hall she could see Filch sweeping the corridor and looking at her disapprovingly. Rolling her eyes she closed the door behind her and walked through her office toward her living quarters. She was glad the next day was Sunday, so she could sleep in a bit before she would have to help Cassian get situated in his office.


	6. Long Forgotten

Deep in the secluded Hoia-Baciu Forest in the heart of Romania, Victor shivered in the twilight. The forest was one of the most renowned, dark, and dangerous places in the world; even the ignorant muggles avoided the area like the plague. Wizards knew little of the profound magic that permeated the wood of that realm and those who tried to understand its meaning tended to either lose themselves or their minds. Something ominous and sinister transformed the forest in ages past and Victor was always uncomfortable with the fact that his master chose this dark place to meet. Removing the silver gloves that had protected him inside Hogwarts, Victor turned toward his partner, who was sitting several feet away from him leaning against a tree. Once more he found himself comparing his stature to that of his partner.

Victor was short and a little round in the midsection, much like a pear. He once had thick, brown hair, but all that remained after many weary years were a few flecks of gray in the middle of his now bald head. His green eyes were still sharp, but that seemed little compensation for the other things he'd lost to his youth. Samael, on the other hand, was clearly a strong, confident man. Even though he was in his forties his hair was still a deep brown and hadn't gone gray. He was in far better physical condition than Victor had ever been, even in his youth.

Victor hated that his master seemed to favor this man, but he could grudgingly understand why he was moved up through the ranks faster than most others. Not only was he more useful because of his looks, he was strong in magic, had a wide understanding of magical artifacts, and could talk his way into almost any secured facility. One of the favorite stories to recall around the camp was when Samael had talked his way past the goblins at Gringott's to get the same mystical silver gloves out of one of the most guarded vaults in the tunnels down below. No one knew they had been stolen because the owner refused to acknowledge that they were missing as they were illegal to have, and the goblins had hushed up the act because it showed their weaknesses to the public and they wanted their bank to remain seemingly impenetrable. Only one other person had ever managed to work their way into the wizarding bank, and he had been assisted by the famed Lord Voldemort.

"That was a little _too_ close for comfort." Victor huffed, wiping the sweat from his brow and sitting opposite his partner in crime. Samael raised his brow at the comment but chose not to pursue the conversation. The silence of the forest began to settle on Victor's nerves and he fidgeted uncomfortably. "Were you able to get the books the Master asked for?" Samael's facial features remained unresponsive though he gave a curt nod. Once more the silence pressed upon them and Victor squirmed awkwardly, playing with the silver gloves in his hands. "Remember when we picked these up?" He asked, not expecting a response. "Those were some crazy times back then."

"You really _can't_ stand it, can you?" Samael's voice cut through the darkness, laughing lightly at his partner's inability to sit still in the dense silence of the forest.

"You know how I hate this place." Victor climbed back to his feet and began pacing again.

Samael smirked and closed his eyes, his face serene. "You've been here for ten years. You'd think you'd be used to it by now." Victor glared at him but chose not to ignore his jab.

Samael watched Victor through barely opened eyes. The master had placed him with Victor as his partner nearly five years ago and he was, safe to say, incredibly sick of the man. Victor had been happy to be paired with Samael in the beginning; it was a sign of the Master's trust in him that he would pair him with one of his most trusted Retrievers. That excitement annoyed Samael more than any amount of disinterest could have.

Victor was a few years younger than Samael, but had let himself go to seed as the years progressed. He was slow witted and could not be counted on to have any kind of knowledge regarding the strange, magical items they were often sent to obtain. To boot, he was just a lousy conversationalist. One of the main reasons Samael had joined the Gwydion was for their reliance on knowledge in deep magic and having to spend five years with the stuttering, sweating buffoon before him had definitely made him reevaluate his original love for the sect.

Atius founded the Gwydion sect nearly forty years prior and had been finding angry, bitter people to help him in his quest to destroy magic completely. In the beginning, he was only able to convince talentless lumps like Victor to join his cause, who could barely find the right end of a wand. They had been easy to convince because the magical community had turned their back on them, much as they would muggles or squibs. Wizards really were an arrogant race as a whole. In their quest to destroy the very thing that brought them life, magic would be a tool, so Atius took these plebes under his wing, teaching them all he knew so that they would finally be useful to him.

After seeing how much time and effort he needed to teach these inadequate squibs even the most rudimentary spells, he began looking for wizards who had proven skills and knowledge. It hadn't taken him long to isolate Samael, the broken, angry, bitter child who had lost his family because of their thirst for knowledge of magical artifacts and trust in the wrong wizards. Wanting to know more about how and why they had been killed, Samael dove into wizard lore, looking for the oldest, strangest, most dangerous artifacts he could, and it was that knowledge that brought him to Atius' attention. The silver gloves were one of the many things he'd uncovered through the years.

Samael had kept his ear to the ground for signs of magical artifacts that were of interest to him, but to support his living, he was known throughout the criminal world as one of the best Retrievers in the business. No matter where an artifact was or how it was protected, he would find a way to get it. Atius approached him regarding the Gloves of Goliath, silver gloves that when worn, would make the wearer impervious to magic. They made the wearer a black hole for insubstantial waves of sound, light, and spells, even air, and making them appear as an endless blackness.

Samael did not ask why he wanted the gloves, Atius did not bother to say much on the subject except for the amount of money he would be willing to pay; enough to support his hobby for over a year. Talking his way past the goblins had been easy, convincing them to willingly drive the cart to the high-security vault without triggering an alarm was almost laughable. The gloves were goblin made and goblins were notorious for wanting their long lost objects for themselves. Opening the vault was ridiculously simple, a few well-chosen words and some tools that he had picked up elsewhere made their security seem childish.

Disappearing without being caught by the goblins or the owner of the vault took a bit more skill, but Samael had a knack for disappearing. Victor had been his contact for Atius at the time and he enjoyed the idea that he had a hand in the amazing acts that Samael had performed on his own. Samael let him think what he wanted. Everyone that mattered knew the truth and Samael didn't care much what the others thought of him. After passing the gloves on to Victor he thought he was finished, but a surprise visitor a few days later convinced him otherwise.

Atius had come to him in person and showed him everything that was in his own heart and how it could all be eased if magic would be eradicated and cause no harm to other families. How could Samael refuse that? So now, five years later, he was in a dark, sinister forest in Romania, listening to the continuous disgruntled complaints of a sub-par wizard who could only survive on the talent of better men.

A long line of cursing suddenly came from behind a tree. Sighing, Samael got up and found Victor, "What's wrong now?" he demanded.

Victor held the gloves out to him with a shaking hand. "They're _ruined_." He said, his face pale as the realization of the situation hit him.

Samael looked at him sharply before inspecting the gloves himself. On each of the fingers of one hand, pieces of silver were missing. "What did you do to them?" he demanded angrily. "Master is going to vaporize you." It was not a threat, but a fact. Of the many items Atius had acquired with Samael's help, the gloves were one of his most prized favorites.

"What can we do? How can we fix it?" Victor asked, his eyes pleading for his life.

Samael shrugged and pocketed the gloves, "I never should have let you wear them." He sighed, angry with himself. "I knew you should have stayed behind."

Victor's chest puffed out defensively, "You couldn't have done it on your own!" He demanded. "You couldn't have looked for the key _and_ the books at the same time!"

"And did you _find_ the key?" Samael demanded, his voice rising in anger. Victor quickly shrunk at the tone. "That was the main reason we were there and you couldn't even accomplish that well enough, could you?" He spat in disgust.

"What are we going to do?" Victor asked in a quavering voice.

"We are going to tell Master the truth. _You_ did not find the key and _you_ destroyed the gloves. You were even responsible for the death of that bookkeeper at the library! All we had to do was sneak in, steal some books, and leave unnoticed."

"He was asking too many questions!" Victor insisted, "And we got the books anyway, right?"

"Yes and had to destroy a whole building, hundreds of years of unique books, just to cover up your shortcomings!" Shame momentarily passed across Victor's features before returning to anger. "When we've finished with the Staff of Dreams, I'm done with you. Atius can either find me someone else willingly or find you mysteriously dead at the edge of the forest. Either way, I'm finished."

"Finished so soon, Samael?" A silky voice said from behind them. Both faces paled as they turned and bowed to their master. "How disappointing." Atius was a tall man who towered above the two wizards and his ice blue eyes reminded Samael of how cold the man could become.

"I'm so sorry, Master!" Victor fell prostrate before Atius, tears freely streaming from his eyes as he began the plea for his life.

Ignoring the weeping man at his feet, Atius turned to Samael, who kept his head down while the Master surveyed the situation. "What has happened?" he demanded.

"I retrieved the books you sent me for, Master." Samael said evenly, keeping all emotion from his voice. He pulled a small satchel out of his cloak and handed it over to Atius. "There was very little trouble in retrieving either set."

Atius looked at him with a raised brow but chose not to dig deeper at the moment. Turning to the cowering man before him he asked, "And the key?" Victor began to cry harder, his body nearly convulsing from fear. Atius kicked him in the ribs, "Where is the key?" he demanded, his voice growing shorter and his temper flaring.

"It was not there, Master!" Victor wheezed. "I searched the girl's office from top to bottom and it was nowhere to be found!"

"Did _you_ search for it, Samael?" Atius asked, his voice deadly in its softness. It was worse than the yelling; it was colder.

"I didn't have the time, Master." He said simply, keeping his face passive. "I was found in the library and pursued."

"Who pursued you?" Samael's jaw clenched against his will as he remembered the face of the woman who chased him down the hall. Atius smiled cruelly, "Ah, so you see that I told you the truth that you so denied. Your sister still lives."

"Yes, Master."

"She abandoned you once when only a babe and now she tries to kill you so you may never find peace in this world or the next; such a strong family dynamic you have." He said with a malicious smirk. Samael refused to meet Atius' gaze. He had seen that his sister did, in fact, live and he knew now that Atius had one more thing to hold over his head though he doubted Malicia's allegiance. She had only been a baby, her choices had been slim. It was him who had abandoned her, though he didn't share his thoughts with Atius and kept them clear from his eyes that would surely betray him. "Have you had any more dreams?"

"No, Master. Just the one last month." He answered honestly.

"Why is it taking so long?" Atius demanded impatiently.

Samael shrugged, "The path to the Staff of Dreams is unique and cannot be tampered with or predicted." He explained for, what felt like, the hundredth time. "I have no control over when the dreams may occur, just as I cannot control how often they occur or what transpires within them. There is a specific set of time and events that must transpire before you can proceed further down the path. Helga Huffelpuff knew what she was doing when she protected the staff. Despite how history has defamed her into being an average witch, she was far cleverer than credited."

"I wonder if you're telling me the truth." Atius turned away from his subordinates and walked confidently through the barren area at the center of the forest. The muggles believed the spot to be a portal to the afterlife where spirits gathered and traveled from one realm to the other and often cursed the living who had entered the place. What had made the perfectly circular clearing barren was a mystery. There was a natural energy about the place and it filled Atius with glee to dwell within it. He had proclaimed on more than one occasion to be one with the forest and the perfect circle formed within it where nothing grew.

Victor was still quivering on the ground, his knees weak and his body shaken. Why wasn't his master acknowledging him?

"Please, please _spare_ me…"

Still being ignored, Atius continued to address Samael, rather than the sniveling man on the ground in front of him. Samael was one of his brightest wizards he'd met and he'd found that often times, the more intelligent required more convincing of their motives. Those with intelligence and motives were harder to control than those searching for purpose and importance in their lives. While Victor was clearly trying to fill the void in his self confidence, Samael had plenty to spare and was determined to uncover the mysteries surrounding his family.

The fact that his sister was indeed alive and was even playing their game was trouble and Atius could see it brewing behind Samael's pale blue eyes despite his attempts to hide it. The man was unsure if what his master had said was true. Often times, Atius would use manipulation to his aid and he knew Samael would be no different than others he'd bent to his whim.

"What reason would I have to lie to you?" Samael would be a fool if he didn't fear Atius and his plans for the future of the world, but Samael knew Atius would be a fool to fully trust him as well. Samael had always worked for no one other than himself for a good chunk of his life and in the end, it was a hard habit to break without the proper incentive.

"You are curious, _ever_ curious… about the death of your parents."

"You know I am, that has never been a secret." Samael stood his ground but avoided glancing at the dark figure. Something about Atius had always unnerved him and that time was no exception to the rule.

"Don't forget why you joined my ranks, Samael." Atius turned around, something in his hand. It was a necklace, and Samael's eyes were drawn right to it. He recognized it immediately but it stung to see it again.

"I haven't forgotten and I haven't been lying."

"You joined me because of how magic _destroyed_ your family." Atius ignored Samael's objection and held up the open locket that had once belonged to Samael's mother. He'd taken it off of her after she'd died and kept it so he would never forget what had happened. Samael didn't respond and waited to see where his master was going with this.

It was true that Samael had joined him for that reason. It made sense to him and comforted him when words wouldn't. A world without magic would keep people from doing harmful things with it. No one would die due to magic, but it also meant no lives would be saved with it. And what Atius had said about Malicia hadn't been true. He'd been the one to abandon his sister, having thought her dead. She'd gone into foster care because she'd been too young to fend for herself but he'd run off with thoughts of revenge in his heart. Had he even checked to see if she was breathing, or crying, or perhaps hiding that night? It hadn't mattered to him what had become of Malicia because he had been foolish and callous in his decisions.

Did Atius somehow know about the guilt he felt boiling within the pit of his stomach? Samael had spent his life on the wrong side of magical law but it didn't mean he didn't have a soul. What if the things he thought he knew were a lie? Would it change his path? What if he did still have family left in Malicia? Clearly she had survived quite well despite having lived through the same thing he had gone through. It was a tricky situation.

"Magic is evil."

"Magic is a tool." Samael immediately responded. Victor gasped in surprise at the objection. Then again, if the master was angry with Samael perhaps his own shortcomings would be overlooked so inwardly Victor rejoiced. "Magic is a tool to be used by evil men for evil deeds and equally by good men to do good deeds."

Much to both men's surprise, Atius chuckled. "You are ever the revelation, Samael." Samael didn't look amused nor did he look apprehensive. "You are right. Magic is a tool for evil men to do evil things with. But we cannot put a stop to the existence of evil men so why not take away the tools they use? Magic, like any other power, corrupts the mind with delusions of grandeur. It corrupts the soul and fills one with the need to destroy and belittle. Magic, ultimately, creates evil men and empowers them, don't you see? Without magic, evil men are as weak as a good man."

"I have seen it, I cannot deny that." Samael nodded and hung his head. "As I told you though, I have not been deceitful with you on any aspect of our tale. I retrieved the books you wanted from Hogwarts library but I did not find anything of note within their pages." Samael continued on before Victor could try to talk over him. "There is nothing about the staff and there is nothing about what to do in our situation. I think that's by design."

"Wizards are arrogant, Samael." With the speed of a man much younger than him, Atius approached Samael and grabbed him by the throat. "They wish for all to know of their great deeds. Somewhere there is record of how to deal with this staff and the path it has led you and Victor upon. Though perhaps I do regret sending Victor to be your aid for these tasks. You are right, he is unfit." Atius glanced at the pitiful Victor who was cowering again and keeping his head down while muttering pleas for his life. He was convinced that if he perhaps laid low he would never be the main focus of Atius' anger. It was simple luck that Atius seemed more concerned with Samael than with him, considering he had been the one that had failed to retrieve the key from that witch's room, had destroyed one of Atius' most prized possessions and had nearly gotten them caught within Hogwarts.

"I will do whatever my master asks of me…" With a simple wave of his hand, Victor's tongue suddenly seemed too big for his mouth. It grew and grew until it started to block his airways. Victor collapsed back onto his knees and grabbed at his mouth, but his tongue was too big to pass through his lips. On the ground he writhed and Atius ignored his struggles and mumbled pleas. Samael glanced sideways for but a second before returning his gaze to his master.

"You have done less than what was required of you, Victor. I should let you suffocate on your own tongue but that would be too great a misfortune even for you. You should be honored to be in my presence and instead you blather about forgiveness. This task you are set upon is greater than you and your many failures. If you do not learn when to silence your tongue you may lose it." Atius waved his hand and Victor coughed and gagged for air as his tongue returned to its normal size.

"Thank you… thank you master," Victor groveled on his knees and scooted backwards in the dirt, closer to the edge of the forest. He did not want to be in the forest any longer, but he didn't want to incur any further wrath from it either. Besides, he wasn't sure which was worse: being within the forest, or within the circular portal in the center of it.

"Do not mistake necessity for kindness, Victor. You are on this path with Samael and killing you would not suit either of us." Atius' cold gaze sent shivers down Samael's spine when it returned to him. "We will continue searching, but perhaps what we seek is not within books or kept on scrolls. Perhaps it's time to ask those who may know of its history. Your sister, right? Surely she is as curious about it as you are."

"My sister will be no part of this, master. There is nothing she knows that I do not." Samael knew that his sister had to be the other one pursuing the Staff of Dreams and it was likely that Atius knew it as well. It was an obvious connection and while neither had admitted it to the other, they both knew the truth.

"Touchy subject, isn't she?" Atius mouth twisted into a grin.

"Her being alive changes nothing in my life." Samael nodded resolutely. "We will keep looking for information at your behest but I do not think we are going to find what you are hoping we will find. There are no written words about the path to this weapon! It is designed that I will find the staff through my dreams and it is up to your poor choice of a partner for me to retrieve the keys that will unlock it." Samael stood his ground. Sometimes he was unsure how he did it when such a menacing present hovered in front of him. There was something terrible and great about Atius that made him want to drop to his knees and pray. It was irrational, but there in the back of his mind nonetheless.

"You're right. Victor must try harder and we must slow down those that are ahead of us." Atius backed away from Samael and held out his hand, summoning something close. One of the many lights that supposedly haunted the forest flew into his hand. Victor got the chills and turned away. Every so often, phantom lights bobbed through the trees, like the ghosts that roamed the woods were holding lanterns to guide their way. Atius had become one with the magic of the haunted forest and this only made him more menacing.

"I agree. We will not fail." Samael said with the same charming confidence that had brought him into Atius' good graces in the first place. It was a family trait, he thought, to be overly confident about what he was good at. He recalled how his father had been the same sort of mischievous troublemaker that he'd grown up to be.

"Don't forget your purpose, Samael. Keep it clear in your mind and your heart. The staff must be ours and you _must_ succeed. Don't let that little witch get in your way. She never looked for you. She never thought twice about you. You don't owe her anything." Atius pressed on.

"I know that." Samael lied to his master's face and to himself. He didn't owe her anything, did he? Then again she was the only family he had. On the same line of thinking he hadn't had any family until earlier that day. It was very confusing for him but he wouldn't let it show. Another one of Samael's skills was his ability to mask what was in his mind. Even Atius couldn't get a clear read on him when he tried hard enough and that is why he was guessing he was getting a lecture instead of Victor for his failure.

"I expect that the next time you have a dream, Victor shall do what he was asked to do. If not, the consequences will be dire."

"Don't you worry, master, our mission will be accomplished." Victor sounded as hopeful and confident as Samael had only moments before but there was something about the way that _he_ said it that made it sound snaky and unsavory. No matter how hard he tried, Victor couldn't be as calm and collected as his partner.

"Being on Samael's quest is a gift, Victor." Atius turned his attention to Samael's lesser half and Samael was relieved. He stepped further away from his master and further into the circle. While the Romanian forest made him feel unsettled, he guessed this was by design so he had never let it get to him. The circle of light that Atius had summoned was dancing around him now, hovering like the source of the light couldn't stand still with excitement.

What if Malicia and her little witch friend got to the Staff before he and Victor did? What would Atius do to the women if he didn't retrieve it? Surely it would be nothing short of horrible and this only strengthened Samael's resolve. He would continue through the dreams and if Victor didn't start retrieving the keys he'd go from there.

"You should be preparing yourself at every second to go through the trials that are required of you and instead you grovel before me like a peasant?" Victor muttered his apologies and hunched over while Atius scolded him. He'd thought he was out of danger when Samael had become the target of Atius' anger and curiosity but had been wrong.

Samael continued to drift, staring at the stars overhead. Having his sister alive had changed much more than he let on. He'd dreamt of his family for all of his many years and what his life would be like if they hadn't died and now he realized that they hadn't _all_ died. That was why he had slashed that picture. He wanted to let Malicia know he was alive and still around. Had his parents recognized him in the portrait? He could only imagine that they would recognize their very own son, no matter the age.

"Trust me if you were not required for the staff and we had time to restart the path to it then you would be dead on the ground before you had landed in the forest. You are watched, Victor. You are never alone. I am everywhere and you should be wary."

"I am… I mean I-I know you are everywhere, master. Forgive me for I am not worthy of you."

"You are right about that, at least." Atius finally stepped away, dismissing the light of the forest. The air was heavy, the clouds gathered overhead menacingly and blocked out the stars that Samael seemed to be contemplating. "Continue your search for information but this time try not to burn down any libraries, will you? And do your best to murder in quiet and secret rather than so blatant. You've made quite the mess for me to handle you know."

"Don't worry, master. We'll be more careful." Samael turned his gaze from the heavens and back toward the cloaked figure that was gazing through him.

"You are always careful, Samael that is why I hired you in the first place. Victor on the other hand is less careful and less patient. I would practice both those things if you don't want to lose your head when the path has been completed." Atius started to disappear through the trees. "Now if you excuse me, I have a rather important meeting in the morning and you two have already kept me far later than I would have liked and have upset me with your failures."

"Our apologies." Samael hung his head in respect, but his mind was still racing with thoughts of family and confusion on the matter. As much as he repeated in his mind that he should think nothing of the lost kin that he'd located on his mission, he couldn't truly convince himself that it should be forgotten and ignored. The witch was a stranger as far as he knew and she should be treated as such. But the nagging doubt in his mind continued to eat at him.

As Atius disappeared into the shadows as he often did, drops of warm and unsettling rain dripped from the clouds above, starting at a slow drizzling pace and quickly turning into a downpour. Walking out of the circle and through the trees, Samael walked past Victor who quickly moved to catch up with him.

"Wait up, Sam you're going too fast!" Victor stumbled through the branches and brush of the forest to keep up and nearly fell on his backside when Samael turned quickly on his heels to face him.

"My name is _Samael_ and I suggest you watch your tone. Atius was easy on you tonight but it doesn't mean I will be. You need to find your focus and stop screwing up. The next toe you put out of line will be your last." Samael's wand was out and pointed at the smaller heavyset man before he'd realized he'd done it.

Victor stumbled backwards in realization that Samael was far angrier at him than he'd thought. Nodding his head quickly, Victor stuttered in response and held his hands up defensively.

"You need me, you can't…"

"I need _no one_, particularly a useless blathering twit like you." Samael held his head up high. "But it is what master requires so I will make use of you until I can no longer control my frustrations."

"I…oh… Sam, I mean… Samael…" Victor stuttered, completely at a loss for words.

"Stay close and keep your trap shut." Samael muttered under his breath and continued through the forest, preparing to find his way home to get some proper rest. He'd take a second look at the stolen books that night and make note of anything that they could further pursue for information. Hopefully when the next dream came, and he had a feeling it'd be sooner rather than later, Victor wouldn't fail them.


	7. Doubt and Drowning

Lia stifled a yawn as the students filed out of her classroom, all talking excitedly about the Halloween feast that was happening later that night. It had been three or four weeks since the break in at the castle but Professor McGonagall had been relentless about security so night patrols continued. Glancing at her watch, Lia yawned again, thankful that her last class for the day was over and she could finally take a nap. Swishing her wand toward the classroom door, she locked it from where she sat, too tired to trudge down the stairs to her office. Putting her feet up on the desktop and leaning back in her chair, Lia tipped her pointed hat down over her eyes and sighed contentedly, prepared for a nice, long rest.

"Wake up sleepy-head!" Malicia called as she bounded into the room. Lia groaned audibly and glared at her friend from under the brim of her hat. "Come on, we've got a feast tonight!" she said, picking up spare pieces of parchment and tossing them at her so they bounced off the brim.

"I'm too tired, go away." Lia growled, waving her wand to stop the paper-onslaught.

"I did watch duty last night too and _I'm_ not tired!" Malicia whined, going over and poking her friend incessantly on her back. They often acted childishly when together, but what was the harm of being young at heart?

"Well you didn't teach two nights of astronomy before having to do a night of watch either, did you?" she snapped. There was a hint of a smile in her voice. It was hard for Lia to stay mad at anyone, least of all Malicia.

Grabbing the point of Lia's hat, Malicia pulled it off her head, making her friend's hair stand in all directions, "C'mon Lia! You know you don't want to miss the Halloween feast, it was always your favorite part of the year outside of quidditch!"

Lia glared at her friend a few seconds more before smiling and shaking her head. "I'm going to need coffee, aren't I?" she sighed regretfully as she pulled herself out of the chair.

"You're going to need _so much_!" Malicia grinned, tossing Lia's hat back to her. "After the feast a bunch of us are getting together and hanging out in one of the empty classrooms that I decorated and you have to come. It just won't be the same if you don't." Malicia pouted and batted her eyelashes and while she doubted it would really do much to convince her friend, she at least thought it was funny.

Lia's head fell back, feigning remorse, "You're killing me here!" she said, stumbling from behind the desk while Malicia opened the door and started to lead them down to the Great Hall. "Do you hate me so much that you aren't going to let me get any sleep?" she demanded.

"You're such a whiner, but yes." Malicia called over her shoulder as they wove through the students who were on their way down the main staircase or hurrying back to their common rooms. "Cass, _Teddy_, Hermione and Neville are coming to our little gathering; so is Ron because Hermione pestered him into it plus Harry said he's bringing Ginny! On top of that, George is on patrol tonight so he'll be popping in for a few minutes too. It'll be fun to have everyone together for something that isn't all foreboding and evil! Come on, this doom and gloom stuff may be what brought us together but it doesn't have to stay that way."

Reluctantly Lia agreed. It had been too long since they had all spent time together as friends without having the end of the world weighing on their shoulders. "Okay, you're right, that _does_ sound like fun. But can't I get a nap before the party starts?" Lia begged. "I'm so tired!"

"Suck it up; you're more fun when you're slap-happy tired anyway once you get past this whiny, grumbling phase that is." Malicia smirked. "Besides, I didn't sleep after watch so I could set up for our little after party, so there."

Lia rolled her eyes and sat at the instructor's table in the Great Hall while a magnificent meal magically appeared before them just as it did every year at the Halloween Feast. While the teachers chatted together, McGonagall looked over at Lia with a raised brow, "I'm surprised you aren't resting, Lia." She said casually. "I know you've had some long nights this week and it must be adding up."

Lia smacked Malicia's arm, "See? Minerva wanted me to sleep!"

Malicia stuck her tongue out at Lia and grinned at McGonagall. "She'll be fine, she's not nearly as tired as she pretends to be."

Minerva smiled and shook her head, "Some things never change." She laughed as Lia threw a roll at Malicia's head.

"Joke's on you, I'm going to eat that." Malicia picked up the roll and added it to her plate.

After the feast the students dragged their feet to their dormitories, all overly stuffed and ready for a good night's rest. Malicia and Lia led their friends and fellow staff members to the fifth floor where Harry, Ginny, Ron, and George had started without them, bringing some homemade cakes, some spice wine, and enough pumpkin juice and butterbeer for all. The group of friends played wizard's chess and exploding snap into the early hours of the morning, all of them thoroughly enjoying their time together not spent worrying about the possible evil lurking up ahead.

Lia pulled some muggle board games from her office and almost immediately got into an argument with Ron over why the characters in Clue didn't move on their own accord. George randomly scanned the hallways of Hogwarts for intruders when he felt the need, but his patrols did not seem to take him more than a few minutes. It took a few butterbeers for Harry to admit that he'd lent George the Marauder's Map, a parchment that showed every room in the school and who was where on the grounds at all times so that he could spend most of his time with their friends instead of patrolling the school corridors.

Ginny regaled them with tales of her adventures in Quidditch training and then updated them on the lives of their kids and how the years had gone for her and Harry. Hermione had been so pleased to see muggle games from her childhood that she and Lia had gotten locked into a conversation so intense about Monopoly that the others hadn't bothered to try and interrupt them. George and Ron were quick to play games of Exploding Snap so they could avoid being roped into the ridiculous muggle games that didn't make any sense to them. Ron had even explained that Hermione had tried to introduce them to their kids, who actually had enjoyed the games, but Ron had failed to understand the concept or the point of most of them and had conveniently found yard work to do instead.

Partway into the night, Hannah Abbott had shown up to surprise Neville who was more than proud to have his wife joining them. He'd brought with him small plants that he'd been working on breeding with Hagrid that they could sell like household pets. The small fuzzy blackish green plants had three leaves at their base and a large bulb at the top. Periodically they would shift colors and release from the top of the bulb bubbles of the same color that would float around the room and light up. They proved to be quite the excellent party favor and each person attending promised to buy one to take home with them. Cassian had taken two because he'd thought they'd be hilarious to put in his lab at St. Mungo's. He promised to update the name of it to the Rave Cave then had to spend the next twenty minutes explaining to those unfamiliar what a rave was in muggle terms.

Cassian worked the room after that, excited to be with all of his old friends again while catching up with each and every person in the place. He'd kept up with Lia over the years, but the others, particularly the old Gryffindors, had been a sight for sore eyes. Theodore sipped his spiced wine, rarely engaging in conversation and adding only hints of smiles or smirks to the stories that were told. Soon after the excitement died down and the supply of butterbeer ran short, the group gathered around a magical fire that George had summoned to dance around and sing made up tribal songs and exchanged stories from the old days.

Neville told stories about his son Frank and just how much like him he had been when he was a child. Somehow their shortcomings they'd suffered through in their youth seemed more humorous now than they had at the time. Harry kept them gripped to the edge of their seats with tales from the Aurors office with the occasional participation from Ron. Hermione rolled her eyes and would jump in every so often to object that some of their tales were short of impossible and began listing the reasons why.

Malicia shared the story of how it came that she started to work with Luna, who she added in couldn't come to the party tonight because of a prior engagement with Newt, as well as several harrowing tales of adventure and hilarity she'd been on over the years. It was a night to be remembered, to say the very least.

Shortly after the clock struck three in the morning, Malicia was falling prey to a mixture of exhaustion and a little too much butterbeer so she decided to take her leave. When the others started to pack up to go she'd insisted they stay. She said this was precisely why she hadn't had the party in her office, just in case she gave into sleepiness before they were ready to part ways. They all agreed this shouldn't be the last gathering of old friends they had anytime soon.

Waving goodbye and still chatting with her friends on the way out the door, Malicia covered her mouth in a yawn as she finally made it out of the once empty classroom and started through the corridors that would lead her to the Grand Staircase and up to the sixth floor where she could return to her office. Her stomach was turning over and over, very likely from the bad combination of too much food, too much drink and not enough sleep to balance it out.

Overall, Malicia thought the discomfort had been more than worth it considering how successful the little gathering of old friends had been. She'd forgotten over the years how nice it was to talk to someone other than her little magical ledger that would write down her musings while she was out exploring the wilderness.

Blindly stumbling into her office, she closed the door behind her, neglected to lock it and then hurried into her living quarters. Using her wand to swing the door closed and locked, she dropped it on the floor and immediately fell asleep, her legs still hanging off the side of the bed.

_Malicia blinked her eyes open slowly. How long had she slept? Probably not long by the feel of her aching head. Her stomach was still turning and she tried once again to observe her surroundings and blinked her eyes. Or at least she thought she had blinked them open. Darkness still met her all around. Fear immediately gripped her chest. Was she back in that awful forest? Would terrible bug like creatures come at her at any moment? Cautiously moving a foot forward, she could feel nothing out of the ordinary beneath her. Sliding one foot at a time, she continued without assault through the darkness. Once more it didn't feel like she was sleeping, but she knew better than to think that now. She had likely passed out in her room in an awkward position again and was one step further along the path for the Staff of Dreams than before._

_ Or maybe this dream had nothing to do with the staff at all. She'd had lucid dreams before, usually after drinking some strange brew given to her by some wizards in other countries, but still she knew it was a possibility. Plus, she'd had an awful lot of butterbeer at their little party. Ron and George were quite the pushers when it came to drinking!_

_ Could she be having a nightmare about a nightmare that she'd had? She laughed, just because of how ludicrous that sounded to begin with. Or at least she thought she'd laughed. Why hadn't the sound echoed through the darkness? Even in the dream before this one she'd been able to hear the sound of her voice. Shaking it off as nothing at all, Malicia touched over her face but her fingers felt strangely numbed._

_ This gave her the chills. At least no nasty groping hands covered in hair and pus were grabbing at her after she tried it this time. But there was something equally unsettling about not being able to properly feel her own face. Nonchalantly, Malicia reached to touch the fading scar on her arm that she'd received consequence of the last dream. It was still there, even if she could barely feel it beneath her fingertips. Making fists with both hands, Malicia tried to work out the tingling feeling to no avail._

_ Deciding that standing around vulnerable in the darkness wasn't going to get her anywhere, she started walking forward. The ground was flat beneath her feet and easy to maneuver across, unlike the last time where she felt as though she'd been in the worst terrain imaginable for the world to have gone black. The air became thicker and harder to breathe with every step she took. With how thick it'd become she expected to feel the humidity around her but still she felt nothing._

_ As she walked, the darkness felt more like a haze. She could see the outlines of things in the distance, but nothing clearly. She stopped suddenly when the outlines changed in front of her, like someone had stepped past her. Clenching her fists so she could defend herself if necessary, Malicia wondered who else would be in the dream with her. Or worse, what else could be in the dream with her. Why she assumed it was a person was something she guessed was instinct._

_ Much to her surprise, no attack came, no fleshy hands, no dirty claws._

_ Turning in place, Malicia realized something that frightened her almost as much as the idea of monsters: she was completely and utterly alone._

Lia was the last to leave the room after saying goodnight to her friends. Cassian and Theodore made fun of her for being so tired earlier in their festivities, but now her eyes were sparkling with lack of sleep and adrenaline. They passed Cassian's office and said goodnight, when they approached Lia's, she kept walking. "Not ready for bed then?" Theodore asked with a raised brow.

Lia shrugged, "It'll take me forever to get to sleep now; I think I'm going to go lay on the grass under the stars tonight."

"You'll fall asleep outside, then." Teddy pointed out.

Lia smiled fondly at the thought, "Oh, that's okay, the stars are my oldest friends Teddy, they're the best nighttime companions.

"Do you want company?" he asked. "I don't mind walking you down there."

Lia laughed, "I'm pretty sure I can make it to the front doors on my own." She smirked, Teddy's face flushed momentarily. They got to his office and Lia patted his arm, "Goodnight Teddy, I'll see you in the morning…or maybe afternoon…well, sometime this weekend I'm sure." She said before making her way down the stairs.

She wasn't sure why, but Lia knew that she had to be on the grounds that night, at that exact moment. If she could apparate inside of Hogwarts she would have gone down that way to be faster. Running down the stairs, Lia giggled to herself occasionally, looking back over that night, over the years, letting her mind wander aimlessly as she jumped over trick stairs and occasionally slid down banisters. As she neared the entrance hall, her momentum caught up with her and she tripped over the last few steps, rolling down the remainder of the stairs and landing sitting on her bottom with her feet spread before her. "I think I dropped my hat." She giggled to herself as she crawled her way back to a standing position. She looked at her feet very carefully, then her arms and torso, as if making sure all of her miscellaneous parts were accounted for before heading to the doors again.

Lia made her way around the castle, looking up at the stars as she walked almost drunkenly toward the lake. Briefly she considered why she felt so peculiar knowing that all she had to drink was butterbeer which had no alcohol, but trying to figure that out took too much focus and her mind quickly drifted as she neared the lake and saw the moon glistening off the still waters. "It's so beautiful." She said as she stumbled towards the waterline, kicking her shoes off as she got nearer. "I've always loved this lake." Her feet connected with the cold water and somewhere in her mind she knew that she should stop her shenanigans and return to her office, but something pulled her farther into the water.

She splashed around and let the water creep over her body, wetting her clothes as she got deeper and deeper. Finding an algae covered rock with her foot, she slipped and fell into the water completely and struggled in her billowing robes to reach the surface for a breath of air, but somehow she had gotten turned around and rather than the light of the moon becoming brighter, the cold, murky darkness enveloped her as she made her way deeper and deeper into the waters.

Fear gripped Lia as her lungs began to burn, begging to release the oxygen she had pent up and slowly, small bubbles came from her lips. Her arms grew tired of fighting with the water; her body went limp and her mouth opened to try once more to get a taste of air, but only cold water filled her lungs. Thoughts of regret echoed in her mind as the faces of her friends and family flashed before her eyes. She knew that she couldn't make it to the surface and there was no one to call for help. Taking her time, Lia came to terms with her death.

_ Continuing toward the shapes outlined in the distance, Malicia felt her limbs starting to ache like she'd been running a marathon. Why was that? She'd barely walked a few feet; there was no reason for her to be so sore. Her heart was even racing, practically pounding out of her chest from how hard it was beating. Gripping her chest, she found that the feeling in her fingers had finally faded entirely. She could no longer sense where her hands were or what she was touching. Walking became suddenly infinitely harder than it was before. Her feet weren't even tingling with the awkward numb feeling she'd sometimes get when she sat in one spot for too long._

_ Rushing forward, sloppily, she was filled with a sudden sense of urgency. She couldn't hear her footsteps and she was sure she should be able to. Her senses were fading. The pieces of the puzzle finally snapped together to paint a clear picture in her mind._

_ The room she was in wasn't dark, her vision was being destroyed, her hearing was gone, the tingling in her fingers had been the loss of her sense of feeling and now at long last she was losing the ability to breathe. What she'd mistaken for thick air had been her airways shrinking up and closing off to the air around her. Whether it was the elements of her surroundings causing her problems or her senses that had been muted, she didn't care._

_ All she knew was that she needed to get to her goal before she ran entirely out of air, which seemed to be happening relatively quickly. The ache in her chest became fully fledged pain and it was taking every bit of her resolve not to break down into a panic. When one was faced with being unable to control their own body, panic was often the end result. Malicia knew she didn't have time for that._

_ Blinking her eyes closed and holding them tight she tried to clear her thoughts so she could think. What had gotten her out of the last dream? She'd embraced the acceptance of fear and the door in the side of the tree had opened to allow her to wake up and be freed of the dream in success._

After a few minutes Lia's eyes shot open as the realization that she was still alive came to her. Not only was she still alive, she was breathing! Water was flowing in and out of her lungs like air as she floated aimlessly in the water, sinking deeper and deeper into the lake. A logical voice in her head told her to get out now, while she still could, but nervous energy still flooded her veins and the realization that her eyes were adjusting to the darkness and she was beginning to be able to see through the gloomy water gave her the thrill of adventure. Tossing her conscience aside, Lia began moving through the water, pulling off her cloak to move better, diving deeper and deeper, anxious to see how big the lake really was.

An intense silence surrounded her as she made her way through the water, a lack of noise that she had never experienced before. She knew that sound was just a form of waves and that she should hear at least some things in the water, but it was as if her ears were shielded from receiving the waves. Her eyes could cut through the cloudy water and she could see farther and clearer than she could above ground. She knew that something was drawing her, pulling her forward, giving her these distinct gifts, but she had no idea what magic could do such a thing.

While she pondered, Lia sank to the floor of the lake, floating a few feet above a forest of seaweed that guarded the lake floor. As she moved effortlessly through the water, a wave pushed her down into the weeds. Looking around frantically, Lia saw a large group of mer-people above her. Most swam by without looking at her, a few looked in her direction but confusion was evident on their faces, as if they knew they should see something, but had been unable to. Looking through the floating leaves around her, Lia saw nesting grindylows, unperturbed by her presence.

Lia was just at the point where she was sure no one could see her when she heard a cry for help from behind her. Flipping onto her back she saw a man caught in the weeds along the floor of the lake only a few feet behind her. The grindylows that had been ignorant of an invader's presence only moments before turned sharply to the sound, their fangs and claws prepared to protect their homes. The flock of mer-people looked through her to the man, now aware of his presence, and pulled their weapons to capture the invader.

The creatures swam around Lia and charged the now drowning man. Apparently, at his outcry, whatever magic that had been protecting him in the water was shattered and he was choking on the water in his lungs. Lia wanted to turn back and help the man, but something told her to continue forward. She watched as the mer-people pulled the grindylows off the man and began pulling him to the surface, now certain that he was no threat to their home. Shuddering at the fate of the man who now floated above her, Lia turned and continued forward.

_ Instead of being able to think clearly, she saw in her mind's eye a vision from her past. It had been the last time she saw Nico and when she had decided to travel the world and throw caution to the wind. He had been unsupportive of her dream. He'd wanted a wife and a mother for his future children to settle down with so he could set roots into a political career, not an explorer who went on dangerous missions and was only around for a portion of the year._

_ Malicia snapped her eyes open and shivered, coughing and gagging on the lack of oxygen, but not hearing the sound of it. She had to concentrate and focus on her end result. The dream was trying to fill her with regret. Or perhaps the lack of oxygen to her system was forcing her life to flash before her eyes. Did she really regret not making things work with Nico so much that it was the first thing that had popped into her mind?_

_ What had she discovered before the regret had taken over? A door. She had found a door in the side of a beautiful tree and when she'd faced her fear, it had opened and set her free. Squinting through the darkness at the shapes and outlines that were still apparent to her, Malicia searched for a door. Instinct was assuring her that the way out would once again be as simple as a door._

_ Blinking a few times in a poor attempt to clear her vision, Malicia thought she saw what might have been the shape of a door in the distance and started running for it. Running, of course, had been a huge mistake on her part. Her lungs constricted and begged for oxygen, forcing her to gag and her mouth to uncomfortably fill with saliva._

_ Still, she didn't stop and continued running until her legs would no longer carry her. That didn't take long, considering she couldn't properly feel her feet. Eventually she tripped and fell face first on the ground. She assumed it hurt, but couldn't honestly feel the pain that it caused. When she scrambled back to her feet, the door seemed just as far away as it had been before she'd started running. That was impossible! How could it still be so far away when she'd run so far and had gotten so close? Another trick of the dream she was sure._

_ Then her numbed feet collided again beneath her and this time sent her flying forward, rolling hard several feet against the flat ground. This time it was much harder to get up, and why should she bother? So she could see that the door had moved further away again? Eyes forced close in preparation of getting off the ground, Malicia saw the regret again in her mind's eye._

_ The last time she'd said goodbye to Lia they'd been talking about meeting up over the fall in her hometown and they had been starting to talk about a wizarding endeavor they'd make together. Life had gotten in the way of course, and while she'd tried to send the occasional owl to her friend, overall she'd lost contact with her entirely. And Cassian, she hadn't even said goodbye to him. Perhaps because she thought it would be too hard to say goodbye to another best friend after how things had gone with Lia. She had thought it would be easier that way, but had never considered that it wouldn't have been easier on Cassian._

All along the floor of the lake, holes, caverns, and canyons floated past as Lia made her way farther and farther into the waters, but as she came to the middle of the lake, one cavern looked particularly out of place. It was perfectly round and just big enough for a person to fit through. Taking a deep breath, Lia readied herself for what might face her inside and swam into the opening.

Lia found that the entrance led to a tunnel that was carved into the side of the lake. Rather than be in total darkness, as she assumed she would be, a small light came from the end of the tunnel, pulling her forward. She found the cavern oddly devoid of life. There were no fish, no plants, no algae as she made her way farther and farther in and it caused a tingling of worry in the back of her mind. The tunnel grew smaller and smaller until she was having to claw at the sides to pull herself forward, but she could see the light only a few feet in front of her. Expelling all the air, or in this case, water, from her lungs Lia forced herself through and fell head-first into a circular room.

The source of the light was a small orb floating in the center of the room, and by it Lia could see the smooth, stone walls of the cave where she was deposited. Looking around she realized that not only was there no water in the room, but her hair and clothes were completely dry. The water from the tunnel seemed to be held at bay buy a barrier of some kind, and though there should be limited oxygen in a space this small, Lia found that she could breathe easily.

There was no writing of any kind along the walls, no pictures, and no way out. Whatever Lia was supposed to do here, she found no clues to guide her forward. Without any obvious signs, Lia found her mind beginning to wander as she once more circled the round room. Wanting to know whether or not this experience was real or a dream, Lia let her hand wander along the smooth, stone wall, almost expecting her hand to go through it. At her touch, water trickled off the wall where her fingers were and pooled in the center of the room in the shape of an ornate key.

Unconsciously, Lia touched the wooden key that hung at her chest and knew that they were connected. She reached out to try to grab the key on the ground, but it turned into a pool of water as soon as her skin touched it. After trying futilely to grab in several times, Lia pulled her wand out and conjured a flask. She laid the flask next to the key and it flowed through the top without prompting.

_ Lying still on the ground, Malicia opened her eyes, assuming they were filled with tears. Again, the girl couldn't tell, thanks to the numbness of the dream. Her head was swimming, that she could feel. The grip on her chest was tightening and she was starting to feel sick. Even coughing offered her no relief. She didn't think she could run any further. No matter how hard she'd tried, the door had evaded her. Clearly she hadn't taken the proper approach this time._

_ Before she could further contemplate what horrible stage would follow the loss of oxygen, Malicia saw in the darkness next to her, the door she'd been pursuing. When she'd given up hope of reaching it, it had made its way to her. Was that a trick of the dreams? Did she have to abandon hope or pride in order to reach her goal? Struggling to her knees, Malicia reached for the door and where she assumed a handle would be to open it. Just like the dream before it, the door had no handle._

_ Using the door to aid her, she slowly got to her feet and stumbled. The stinging pain in her knees and scraped up hands from repeated falls was getting to her. She took this as a good sign, considering she hadn't been able to feel a thing before, not even pain!_

_ "I'm gonna break the damn thing down." Malicia panted between poor attempts to breathe. Her head was swimming, lungs were aching with the lack of oxygen, but she felt renewed at the fact that she'd at least gotten to the door. When she got out of this dream, well, if she got out of this dream, she'd have to ask someone about physical combat. Because of the nature of her career she was in decent shape, but clearly not in good enough shape to handle the things that she'd encountered within her dreams._

_ Apprehension struck her and she hesitated. If she smashed into the door it was going to hurt later. But there were no other options. So without another thought, Malicia ran shoulder first into the door. Crash! She hit it so hard that her shoulder smashed into it and bounced her backwards, throwing her onto her back. Dizzy from falling, Malicia immediately returned to her feet._

_ Instead of taking it at a running start this time, she hurried to the door and started to push and pull on the corners. Her limited vision was dimming and her grip became sloppier with time as things continued on. She had very little time left before she was forced to give into the terrifying grip that was clutching at her. The more she thought about it, the more she felt death's cold fingers around her throat, urging her to go quicker._

_ Gripping at the frame of the large door near where Malicia assumed it would open, she slammed her shoulder repeatedly into the frame. It wasn't hurting now, but she was sure it would be bruised and scraped up later. That didn't matter, not now. Having a big ugly bruised shoulder would be better than being dead in a dream. The scratch from the first dream seemed to prove to her that they were as real as the life she lived each day teaching at Hogwarts._

As soon as the key was in the flask, the orb of light flashed and the room went dark. Lia felt water beginning to pool at her feet as the barrier that had held the lake back was broken. Frantically, Lia shoved the flask into the hidden pocket of her dress and searched for the opening, the only way out of the small room. Taking a deep breath, she tried to climb back into the tunnel only to be expelled by the force of the water flowing in. The water was at shoulder height now and rising quickly. Lia took one last breath and dove underwater to look for the tunnel. By the time she found it, the cavern must have been full because the current was gone. Clawing her way forward, Lia climbed through the tunnel, her clothes weighing her down as she tried to reach the surface as soon as she could.

Breaking through the tunnel to the lake floor, Lia's lungs were burning from holding her air for so long. As she dug her way through the forest of weeds, grindylows began pulling at her clothes, trying to drag her down. Desperate to escape, Lia pulled out her wand and pointed it at the creatures, sending a jet of boiling water at them. By the time she was released, her head was pounding from the lack of fresh air. With all the strength she could muster she kicked and swam, forcing her way up to the surface, but now the weight of the water sat heavily on her bones, making them ache, and the exhaustion she'd felt before the party was back, draining the energy from her burning limbs.

Slowly, the air leaked out of her lips due to her effort and she was sure that if she hadn't been deep in the bowels of the lake, tears would be falling from her eyes for every bubble of air that she lost. She could see a hint of the rising sun as it peaked over the castle grounds and it was still so far away. Unable to move her arms anymore, Lia released a sigh, certain that there would be no magic to save her now as water flooded into her mouth and lungs. As she lost consciousness she felt something strong encircle her waist, thinking that this time the giant squid might have been too late.

_ Grunting and shouting several obscene curse words at the door as it refused to give, Malicia slid down against it. Coughing and gagging and seeing bright lights and stars in her vision, she knew it was at last the end. Her lungs weren't taking any air in any longer and she was going to die. She had no strength left in her limbs, no hope that she would get the door open._

_ Closing her eyes, she leaned her head against the door with a solid thunk. This was it, this was the end. She was dying. There were so many things she hadn't gotten to do, so many things she hadn't gotten to say. She'd never fallen in love, or explored the rain forest. She'd never solved the mystery of her parents' deaths or set Lia up with someone. When had she given up on those things?_

_ "Malicia!" At first she thought it was simply a hallucination, a trick of the lack of oxygen playing with her mind so she didn't pay attention to the pain it caused. But then she heard her name again, from a voice she recognized. Lia was calling her! Lia was yelling to her. Malicia leaned away from the door and looked around but she saw nothing, not even the door. Her vision had at last failed her._

_ "Malicia!" This time, Cassian was calling to her and urging her on. She heard her name being called over and over, by Harry, by Minerva, Ron, Luna, almost every one of her friends she'd made over the years and mostly in the last month._

_ She'd try one last time, to run into the door and get it to open. She'd try one more time to get to the friends calling her from the other side. If not for her own selfish needs, she'd try it just so their encouragement wouldn't be in vain._

_ Malicia got to her feet, eyes still closed, concentrated on where she recalled the door being and took off at a run. Instead of feeling her shoulder smashing into the door as it had before, she felt it swing open and fell through the other side._

Gasping awake, Malicia immediately stood up and then fell right onto her floor. Lying on her back she stared at the ceiling and coughed for air. Her lungs were stinging and aching just as badly as they had been when she was in the dream. As she rolled over her shoulder gave beneath her and she fell flat on her face and grimaced. Just as she had predicted, her shoulder was throbbing in misery from having been repeatedly bashed into a door. Her hands were scuffed up and her fingernails bloodied from prying so hard at it.

"Malicia! Malicia, open up! Are you okay? Please answer me! Malicia!" Cassian's voice was coming from the other side of the door as he banged against it.

Just as she was going to answer, she felt the same sting in her back that she'd felt after the last dream. It was like a hot knife was being pressed against her skin. Grimacing, wincing and cursing between coughing and gagging, she gripped at the floor and waited for it to pass. If she'd been that miserable in the dream, what could Lia have gone through? With her heart pounding in her ears she decided she couldn't keep her secret any longer. She had to tell Lia what she was up against so she could at least prepare for what would come next. If Malicia had it her way, she wouldn't have involved anyone but there had been no choices in the matter.

"Malicia, that's it! I'm coming in!"

"Just hold on a second, okay?" Malicia said between coughs. The sound from the other side of the door stopped. Apparently Cassian had not been expecting her to respond. What he _had_ been expecting or _why_ he was there was a mystery to her.

"Are you okay? What's going on in there?"

"Two seconds, okay?" Malicia laid flat on the floor while she waited for the throbbing in her back to cease. Slowly sitting up once she sure the pain had subsided she stopped to catch her breath. Something told her it would take awhile to fully recover.

"Fine, as long as you're okay." Cassian still sounded apprehensive.

"I'm fine, just… give me a moment." Malicia slowly pushed to her feet and tested her balance. She was okay and getting better by the second. Peeking into her mirror she noted the purplish bruise growing on her shoulder and cursed under her breath. She had done more cursing that night than she had in years.

Finding her cloak, she threw it over her shoulders and tied it tightly so that it would cover both the blood she was sure was on her back and the bruise on her shoulder. Coughing again against the back of her hand, she went to the door, unlocked it, and opened it wide.

"What?" Cassian was pale and looked both exhausted and concerned. He stared at her open mouthed in awe for a moment, then turned around to make sure he wasn't losing his mind. Swiping his hand through his hair, then over his mouth he cleared his throat.

"Excuse me? You're in there practically hacking up a lung and you wonder why I'm here? I could hear you all the way in the hall!"

"Well, that explains a lot." Malicia pursed her lips and then started into her office, stumbling tiredly along.

"What was that? Are you sick? Come on, let's go to Madame Pomfrey." Cassian followed her as she hurried through the office. "Malicia, stop!" He shouted, stomping his foot against the ground in frustration.

"We have to find Lia." She turned around, hoping to convey her concern through just a look. Cassian sighed and closed his eyes tightly, pinching the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb.

"Why? Why do we have to find Lia? She's probably sleeping in her office."

"She's not, something's wrong." Malicia knew she couldn't tell Cassian what was going on with the Staff of Dreams. The more people who knew, the more would be in danger. It wasn't written anywhere that this was truth, but Malicia's gut was telling her _not_ to reveal the secret to him.

"I don't care." Cassian laughed in disbelief. "What is wrong with _you_? First you leave the party looking pale and then you're gagging and coughing so loud that it sounds like someone's torturing you. You can't expect me to let that go, right?"

"Look, you just have to trust me." Malicia approached Cassian cautiously, hands in front of her in a defensive gesture.

"Trust you? I haven't seen you in years, Malicia, right now I just want the truth. And then I'll trust you." Malicia winced from the way Cassian had spoken to her. He'd clearly grown out of his awkward shell quite a bit from his years in school when he had barely been able to ask her a simple question without apologizing.

"I know, but right now I can't. Right now I need to find Lia and if you want me to see Poppy I will but she's not going to think it's funny that you woke her up when I'm okay." Malicia started out of the office again without him. She didn't have time to waste. Something was tugging at her and telling her she needed to find Lia.

"Lia is in her room, she left awhile ago! She was exhausted and not for anything, complaining that _you_ wouldn't let her sleep." Cassian trailed behind Malicia. Even if she didn't tell him what was going on, he wasn't going to let her go wherever she was headed alone. "Do you have a fever? Are you delusional? You know, I do the doctor thing now…"

"I swear Cass, if you don't stop harping on me I am going to hex you!" Malicia hurried up, holding her cloak at her sides and taking the stairs at a run, being careful of the false steps just in case. "And I know some _really_ creative curses you wouldn't be able to imagine up."

"If she's not in her room, where do you propose she is?" Cassian shouted from the top of the staircase before following after her with a heavy sigh. Malicia stopped while she waited for the staircases to shift so she could get further downstairs.

"The lake." She wasn't sure how she knew where she'd find her friend, but somehow, she knew.

Theodore tried to sleep, but couldn't get the strange image of Lia out of his mind. Something about her eyes when they said goodnight had bothered him and he was angry with himself for letting her walk down to the grounds alone. Letting a string of curses flow freely from his tongue, he got out of bed and pulled his cloak over his shoulders and stormed down the stairs. It had been a few hours since they had parted, but Teddy was certain he could find her on the grounds. She only had one or two favorite spots to watch the stars that weren't in the forest and they weren't too far from the entrance to the castle.

In a few short minutes Theodore was near the lake, but he hadn't planned on spending much time searching there. The trees along the side of the lake were too dense to provide a clear view of the stars, but something caught his eye. As the sun peaked over the edge of the lake, a shadow appeared near the water's edge: a shoe. Curious, Theodore walked to the lake and saw the shoes followed by footprints leading to the edge of the water where a dark cloak floated aimlessly in the shallow water. It had been the cloak Lia was wearing that night.

Running into the water, Theodore grabbed the cloak and found it empty. His heart stopped hammering for a moment as he realized that Lia was not lost in the waterlogged cloak, but slowly the realization dawned on him that if her shoes and cloak were sitting at the water's edge, that she must be in the water still.

"Lia!" he called, letting his voice echo off the castle walls. "Lia!" Of course, if she had been underwater and drowned, there was no way that she could hear him, let alone answer his yells. He dragged the cloak to the shore, picked up a rock, and threw it into the water in frustration. As the rock skipped across the flat surface of the water, a giant tentacle rose to the surface, clutching a limp figure in a green dress. Cursing once more, Theodore kicked his house shoes off and dove into the water, swimming as fast as he could toward Lia's unconscious form.

Linking one of her arms in his, he turned and pulled her back to the shore trying not to think about how pale she looked. Once they were on solid ground, Theodore flipped Lia onto her stomach and began pushing on her back and watched in fear as water poured out of her lungs. Once no more water came from her mouth he flipped her onto her back and breathed air into her lungs, following with chest compressions. After what seemed like hours, Lia began coughing and taking long, deep breaths.

"Teddy…" Lia gasped as air returned to her lungs and color to her skin.

He help Lia up and sat her against the tree near the waterline, she was so tired she was shaking. "What the hell were you doing?" He demanded angrily, though relief that she was safe was evident in his voice.

Lia shook her head, barely able to do more, "I don't really know." She stuttered, her teeth chattering from the cold.

Theodore picked up his cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders before pulling out his wand. Hot air flowed from its tip and in a few minutes both friends were dry, but Lia was still shaking. He picked her up and saw Malicia and Cassian come rushing out of the entrance doors from the castle. "I'm not going to push you now," he whispered as he carried her toward the castle, "but when you're well, you're going to give me some answers." He said firmly as Malicia and Cassian reached them. Ignoring their questions, Theodore took Lia into the castle and to the infirmary, setting her carefully in a bed.

"This is starting to become a habit." Madame Pomfrey grumbled as she fussed over Lia and listened to what happened. "All of you, out." She demanded as she began pouring some Pepper-Up Potion into a goblet for Lia to drink. Reluctantly, Theodore and Cassian headed for the door, but Malicia stayed resolutely behind.

"C'mon Malicia, she needs to rest and so do you." Cassian objected as Malicia made herself comfortable next to her friend.

"You guys go; I'll stay with her this time." She said, waving him off. "Besides, I can rest here just as easily as I could in my office." Cassian looked like he was about to object but Malicia was firm, "Go Cass. I'll see you later, I'm sure." Knowing that he would be defeated, Cassian turned and followed Theodore out of the hospital wing.

Theodore was still standing in the hallway, looking suspiciously at the now closed door. "There's something going on with those two and I want to know what it is." He said, more to himself, but partly to Cassian. The two had never been particularly close friends, but if anyone could help him get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Lia and Malicia, it was the strange scientist next to him.

Cassian shook his head and sighed, "You're right. We need to figure out what it is before either of them gets seriously hurt."

"Lia's already almost died twice because of whatever it is and I have no doubt that we've only seen the beginning of it." Theodore said as the two began walking towards the staircase.

"Twice?" Cassian asked.

Theodore nodded, "Oh, right, you came in late." Giving what information he remembered, Theodore recounted Lia's episode in the woods.

"That does sound strange, even for Lia, even for the Forbidden Forest." Cassian agreed. "I wonder if Malicia had something happen then too since these two seem connected." Theodore looked confused so Cassian explained what he had heard from the hallway and the strange encounter he'd had with Malicia afterward.

"I was wondering why you two were rushing to the lake at this time of day. I knew there was no way that either of you could know about Lia yet, I had just barely pulled her out of the water."

"When Malicia finally came out of her office, she knew exactly where she needed to go." Cassian repeated, "And she knew that Lia was in some kind of danger. I mean, I knew those two were always connected, but this was a little much, even for them." The two teachers had reached their offices on the sixth floor and stood in front of the staircase, each lost in their own recollections.

"We've got to get to the bottom of this." Theodore said resolutely before turning and storming to his office.

Cassian watched Theodore walk off and shook his head, "It's going to be a long year."


End file.
